Under the title "Plastics for the Circular Economy and Climate Protection", leading associations of the entire plastics value chain have published a position paper underlining the importance of the plastics and recycling industry for climate protection. Directly linked to this are demands on politicians to set the legal framework conditions to give more weight to the environmental and economic importance of plastics as a raw material.

The very fact that the paper is a joint publication of the organisations Plastics Europe Deutschland, the GKV Gesamtverband Kunststoffverarbeitende Industrie [German Association of the Plastics Converters],VDMA Fachverband Kunststoff- und Gummimaschinen [Plastics and Rubber Machinery Association] as well as organisations of the waste disposal and recycling industry the BDE Bundesverband der Deutschen Entsorgungs-, Wasser- und Rohstoffwirtschaft [Federal Association for Waste, Water and Raw Material Management] and the bvse Bundesverband Sekundärrohstoffe und Entsorgung [Federal Association for Secondary Raw Materials and Waste Disposal] underlines the urgency of the topic and the claim of those involved to act together. The raw material plastic is far too important economically and ecologically to be viewed from only one angle. The declared goal is a functioning circular economy in order to profit even more from this valuable material and to ensure sustainable development of the industrial sectors. The publication focuses on the idea of sustainability in the production, use and recycling of plastic products, which thus play a significant role in achieving the climate targets that have been set. The position paper lists concrete measures to strengthen the circular economy. These range from recycling-friendly product design, improving the collection and sorting of plastic waste, stopping plastic waste exports to non-EU and OECD countries to increasing the share of recycled material in new plastic products and demanding a legal framework that supports this. The avoidance of plastic inputs into the environment, keyword microplastics, is also a demand of the paper.

The participating organisations, which together represent an important economic factor with many hundreds of thousands of employees, underline with the paper the will to bundle joint know-how and to strengthen the external perception of the interests of the plastics industry and to address its transformation to a circular economy.