Circular economy key to future of European chemical industry

Fully embracing the circular economy by firmly grasping REACH and waste policies can help the EU stave off future competition from emerging global markets, Cefic has said. In its mid-century strategy, published this week, the trade body lays out how the European chemical industry will play a central role in contributing to the circular economy as it works towards greater transparency and ways to produce and handle chemicals more efficiently by 2050. The strategy, director general Marco Mensink says, is not so much a forecast but a text to engage discussion among key stakeholders.  In the coming decades, the European agenda on health, chemicals and REACH, in particular, "is not changing at all", Mr Mensink says. "The drive for different types of chemistry, the drive for alternatives, the drive to put REACH in place is going to stay, [but] the [rest of the] world is not following." Integrating the chemicals industry with the waste sector is "highly logical", he adds, because waste is nothing more than a chemical mixture. "Integrating chemicals and waste automatically gives you an answer called chemical recycling."