During the discussion at the event for the specialized press organized by the German Plastic Manufacturers Association PlasticEurope Deutschland e.V., Karl-X expressed his opinion about the introduction of the tax on plastic products. Karl-H. Foerster, Executive Director of Plastics Europe. He believes that tax is a danger to climate protection.

Carl-X. Förster noted that today plastic shows remarkable results in the field of environmentally sustainable handling of raw materials, representing a valuable material for the thermal insulation of buildings, as a packaging for protecting sensitive to the environment or perishable products, etc.

This material saves valuable resources, electricity, contributes to the reduction of conventional greenhouse gas emissions. When you introduce a tax on plastic products, according to K.-H. Förster, these important for the ecology and protection of the climate benefits will be endangered, and the innovation process will slow down.

K.-H. Förster stressed that at the end of the life cycle of plastic products, the plastic product tax would not yield any significant results. Already today, the industry feels that the plastic is too good to throw it away, and even after the end of the useful life phase, it is a source for the production of high-quality secondary raw materials.

The condition for using this raw material is a functioning waste management system, as in Germany, where the level of secondary processing of plastic waste has risen recently to 99%.

A package of EU measures to create a closed cycle economy establishes the right incentives for achieving the same high level in other parts of Europe. Although it would be desirable, in K.Kh. Förster, to promote these measures with greater coherence.

Touching on the world’s garbage problem in the world’s oceans, K.Kh. Förster noted that the European tax on plastic products is not its solution. Rather, global efforts are needed to improve waste management and inform local people. For example, associations of plastic manufacturers around the world began to develop solutions against marine debris and launched numerous projects in this direction.