Eastman Chemical joins European plastics circularity coalition lobbying for recycled-content rules

Eastman has joined more than 30 organizations in the European Plastics Circularity (EPC) Coalition, an industry-led initiative lobbying for policies that strengthen plastics circularity and investment in Europe. The coalition asks that mandatory recycled-content targets under Article 7 of the PPWR be met with material collected, sorted and recycled in the EU, EFTA and UK, or in third countries demonstrating genuine equivalence across their whole recycling system. It proposes clear eligibility rules, system-level equivalence assessment, and enforceable audits and penalties.

Key facts

Market context

Recycled plastics, such as recycled polyolefins and polyester, are used mainly to make packaging, where brand owners and converters blend them with virgin resin to meet recycled-content goals. Demand for these materials is driven by packaging volumes in food, beverage, personal care and household goods, and increasingly by regulatory mandates that set minimum recycled shares. Those mandates shape where feedstock must come from, so rules that restrict eligible material to domestic or equivalent recycling systems can change which collection and sorting streams are valued. Such shifts tend to tighten supply of qualifying post-consumer material, which can lift prices for recyclers and push converters to secure long-term contracts. Chemical recyclers and producers of advanced recycled feedstock may also gain or lose relative position depending on how equivalence and audit requirements are written. For buyers and investors, the key variables are the final wording of eligibility rules and how strictly audits and penalties are enforced.

Source: official release on eastman.com. Summary and context written by Market Krystal.