Policy and reports

An independent report by Francesco degli Innocenti and Tony Breton of Novamont on plastic biodegradability and harm posed to the environment in the event of leakage into the environment.

An independent expert report from the European Commission ‘s mission Board for Soil Health and Food, providing an update on progress towards the goal to ensure 75 per cent of soils are healthy by 2030.

An update published by the government on the progress towards the goals and objectives of the 25 Year Environment Plan.

The final project report on the RES URBIS project compiled by the European Commission Research Executive Agency.

The European Environment Agency (EEA) looks at the importance of organics waste recycling for the achievement of EU recycling targets, laying out how separate collection of food and garden waste is the best route to increasing organics recycling.

The report from Wageningen University and Research covers research carried out between February and October 2019, where nine different compostable plastic products were tested for disintegration and biodegradation in industrial composting plants.

The Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO), the Australasian Bioplastics
Association (ABA) and the Australian Organics Recycling Association (AORA) produce a new set of guidelines to help businesses make informed choices when considering the use of compostable packaging

Plastic pollution in the ocean is a global problem that requires cooperation from a wide range of groups (e.g., governments, producers, consumers, researchers, civil society). However, by virtue of their core regulatory powers, governments have a critical role to play in helping to solve this problem. This study aims to synthesize the policy response of governments to the global plastic pollution problem, as a basis for more rigorous monitoring of progress (as called for in Resolution 4/6 of the 2019 United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) meeting) and to inform future public policies.
The scope of the study is limited to public policies introduced during the period from January 2000 to July 2019, prior to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Research conducted by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre to advance more objective and rigorous measurement and analysis of the bioeconomy according to the Commission’s broad 2018 definition.

Research carried out by Wageningen University has revealed that compostable plastics biodegrade sufficiently quickly in Dutch composting facilities.