Plastic Footprint

The Plastic Footprint can be defined as the amount of plastic that, at the end of its useful life, ends up as waste in the environment.

The main objective of the European Union is to establish a joint strategy to reverse the impact of plastic use on the environment and human health. For this reason, the EU set a target to reduce the use of plastic by making all packaging on the EU market recyclable by 2030. It also included the reduction of microplastics and the complete elimination of single-use plastics.

The purpose of the draft Royal Decree on packaging and packaging waste is to transpose Directive (EU) 2018/852, which amends Directive 94/62/EC, and the application of the provisions of Directive (EU) 2019/904, referring to single-use plastic packaging, also reviewing in depth all packaging and packaging waste regulations, and adopting the necessary measures to meet the new challenges, including the promotion of prevention in the production of packaging waste as a priority, and achieving the new recycling targets for 2025 and 2030, in accordance with the new calculation method set out in Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2019/665 amending Decision 2005/270/EC (50% recycling target for 2025 and 55% for 2030).

In this context, it is necessary for organisations to measure the plastic footprint of all their activities and operations, identifying in which phases this footprint is generated and the different ways in which plastic can end up as waste in the environment.

This analysis will allow the development of strategies for the use of plastic and reduce its footprint, prioritising the phases with the highest incidence, considering all phases of the plastic life cycle.

EQA, an independent verification entity, guarantees the reliability and transparency of the data reported for the calculation of the Plastic Footprint of organisations, following the guidelines of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology, focused on plastic consumption.

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