On the one hand, the industrial sector should be required to use a minimum share of recycled materials in certain products. On the other, the secondary materials must also meet clearly defined, market-compliant quality standards.
The secondary production of materials from waste through recycling often requires much less energy than production from primary raw materials. To enable high-quality secondary materials to be produced, however, everyone involved is called upon to contribute. Waste needs to be collected as cleanly as possible and the collected materials must be processed into marketable secondary materials at the sorting and recycling centres, taking account of the respective quality requirements.
But this is not the end of the chain. To allow recycling to exploit fully its indirect energy-saving potential, it must also be ensured that the secondary materials in manufacturing industry replace raw materials of the highest possible quality. In order to facilitate this, recycling companies should create common quality standards for their secondary products which make marketability easier and transform the image of recycled products. In addition, however, political assistance is also required to promote the use of secondary materials. One example here is the EU regulation under which the content of new plastic packaging must comprise at least 25 % recycled material by 2025.
The following measures can help to increase the use of high-quality secondary raw materials:
- “Green” procurement in the public sector
- Targeted guidelines aimed at ensuring green procurement in individual industries
- Specification of a minimum share of secondary materials in certain products and construction materials
