As a coalition of businesses, municipalities, waste managers, and civil society organisations committed to building a truly circular, fair, and resilient European bioeconomy, we call on the European Commission to consider introducing Extended Producer Responsibility for food products.
The forthcoming EU Circular Economy Act (CEA) offers a unique opportunity to underpin the binding EU food waste reduction targets and the obligation to separately collect bio-waste with a robust financial mechanism.
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In a Reloop-coordinated joint call to European Commission Executive Vice-President Stéphane Séjourné and Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall, 112 entities urge the European Commission not to reopen the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) as part of the upcoming Environmental Simplification Package expected in December 2025.
The PPWR is a cornerstone of the European circular economy. It establishes the necessary, comprehensive framework that enables truly reusable and recyclable packaging across the Single Market by 2030. Maintaining the integrity of the existing Regulation is essential to delivering on Europe’s strategic goals, including the Clean Industrial Deal’s target to double the circular material use rate to 24% by 2030. This ambition is wholly dependent on market stability and predictable legislation.
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Together with DUH, ECOS and EEB, Zero Waste Europe supports strong and horizontal EU rules on recycled content in critical raw materials (CRM) as part of the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), as well as for other materials—i.e. ferrous metals, cobalt, other plastics streams, etc.—with high traceability requirements.
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The EU Bioeconomy Strategy must avoid promoting material substitution for its own sake. Simply replacing fossil-based materials with bio-based alternatives does not guarantee sustainability. What matters is reducing overall material and resource consumption within planetary boundaries. Bio-based materials must not serve as a smokescreen for increased production and consumption.
Zero Waste Europe sets out its recommendations for the EU Bioeconomy Strategy, urging policymakers to prioritise resource sufficiency, genuine circularity, and chemical safety, warning that bio-based materials are not automatically sustainable, circular, or safe substitutes for fossil-based ones.
Zero Waste Europe joined Civil Society Europe and 570+ organisations from across the EU and beyond to call on MEPs to address unprecedented attacks on NGOs in the European Parliament and ensure that citizens’ voices are heard.
European civil society organisations (CSOs) are currently facing an unprecedented attack coming from certain Members of the European Parliament. The attack, spearheaded by some MEPs from the European People’s Party (EPP) and by far-right groups, is fuelled by disinformation. The attack resorts to misleading arguments to artificially fabricate a scandal, and is carried and amplified by badly informed media articles.
At a time when democratic values are being eroded across the EU and Member States, and civic actors acting for these values are increasingly under attack, this renewed offensive on funding for CSOs and on our legitimacy in the democratic process risks not only shrinking European civic spaces further but weakening democracy as a whole.
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This joint statement on the Just Transition Fund (JTF) is a crucial to furthering EU financial instruments aimed at ensuring that no region or community is left behind as the EU transitions towards climate neutrality. With a focus on the socio-economic impacts of this transformation, particularly in coal-reliant regions, the JTF has proven essential in fostering long-term economic diversification and decarbonisation. As the EU prepares its Multiannual Financial Framework for 2028-2034, it is vital that decision-makers extend the JTF to maintain momentum in these regions. The continuation of this dedicated fund will enable vulnerable areas to build on their progress, helping to ensure that the green transition is both just and inclusive.
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This statement serves as a detailed rebuttal to Chemical Recycling Europe’s (CRE) position paper on Zero Waste Europe’s ‘Leaky Loop “Recycling’ report. The report assesses the viability of pyrolysis, while critically analysing and consolidating findings from twenty-two independent peer-reviewed empirical research papers on the quality of pyrolysis oil derived from plastic waste. This rebuttal challenges CRE’s criticisms, accusing them of lacking robust evidence and providing only rhetorical content in their position paper. The author of ‘Leaky Loop “Recycling’ calls for more substantial evidence from CRE to support their claims and highlights inconsistencies in CRE’s references, particularly in the context of life cycle assessments (LCAs) and operational performance data of pyrolysis processes.
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In this joint statement, civil society organisations voice their concerns about toxic chemicals in packaging. Recent studies reveal alarming health risks, especially for children, due to exposure to harmful substances. The Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) offers a crucial opportunity for change. The statement urges the EU to enforce stringent rules within the PPWR, eliminating unsafe substances from packaging.
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With the negotiations of the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), the EU has the opportunity to prevent waste and scale up reuse in this key sector. In this joint statement, NGOs and civil society provide key policy recommendations to achieve an ambitious regulatory framework on the prevention and reduction of packaging.
This joint statement between Zero Waste Europe, UNESDA, Natural Mineral Waters Europe, Changing Markets Foundation, and AIJN – European Fruit Juice Association calls on EU decision-makers to create the right enabling policy framework to help accelerate the transition to a circular economy in Europe.
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With this paper, the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), Zero Waste Europe, 17 other health and environmental NGOs provide a position on key priorities and recommendations in the context of the REACH revision. This revision must focus on accelerating, simplifying, and making regulatory processes for chemicals of concern less burdensome for the authorities.
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In a statement led by EEB, Zero Waste Europe and 21 other organisations call on the European Commission, Parliament and Council to adopt ambitious requirements in the Battery Regulation to enable battery removal, replacement and repair for consumer electronics and LEVs.
In a joint statement spearheaded by BEUC, ZWE and 23 other organisations representing businesses and consumer and civil society express their deep concern about the current direction of the European Parliament’s negotiations on the Digital Services Act (DSA) and by the content of certain draft compromise amendments that exclude key platform services. We urge policymakers to avoid adopting a framework that presents significant risks for both consumer protection and businesses’ viability and reputation, especially for offline small and medium enterprises.
We, the undersigned civil society organisations, call on the EU institutions and member states to explicitly dedicate the NextGenerationEU Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) to financing the transition towards a circular, carbon neutral, zero pollution economy, to which the EU already committed, with a clear emphasis on waste prevention and reuse.
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Zero Waste Europe calls for the exclusion of burning waste in cement plants in line with the Technical Expert Group (TEG) recommendation, as such practice proved to negatively impact public health and the environment due to the polluting nature of the associated emissions while undermining the circular economy.
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Almost 90% of material resources used in the EU are lost after their first use (1). A lot more effort is needed to accelerate a systemic transition to a circular economy, to drastically reduce the EU’s absolute natural resource use and greenhouse gas emissions, respecting the planetary boundaries and striving towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
To achieve this, the Prevent Waste coalition of European civil society organisations advocate for the improvement and enforcement of EU policies on waste prevention and product design.
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