The Normative Role of the Circular Plastics Alliance in the EU’s Transition towards a European Circular Economy for Plastics

The global pollution and waste crisis presents us with environmental and economic challenges which if not properly addressed could destabilise or threaten the survival and welfare of societies. The European Union is responding to the waste and pollution crisis through its circular economy agenda that adopts a broad life-cycle approach to the regulation of plastics from production, consumption, disposal, and recycling. To operationalise its agenda, the European Union seeks to inter alia mobilise all actors towards the objective of improving the economics of plastic recycling. Given the potential for conflicts and disputes to proliferate across a broad range of societal actors and interests, it is perhaps not surprising that when we examine the evolving EU legal and normative framework for a circular plastics economy, we observe a polycentric governance arrangement that includes the EU institutions, the Circular Plastics Alliance (CPA), and European standardisation organisations (i.e. CEN and CENELEC). The normative interactions amongst these governance bodies will not easily be unveiled and understood if we enclose our perspectives and analyses within the limits of traditional legal paradigms that only focus upon the formal law-making processes that flow through the European Parliament, Council, and Commission. However, by applying Karl Llewellyn’s law-jobs theory in this article, it is possible to analyse how a multiplicity of governance bodies perform certain legal functions that are contributing to the development of regulatory order for a European circular plastics economy. This article sets out a number of key findings in relation to the evolving legal and normative framework for a European circular plastics economy pertaining to the role of the CPA in framing problems, theorising solutions, and shaping the pathway of normative development towards a European circular plastics economy. To date, the CPA has identified obstacles to the expansion of the European recycled plastics market, and mapped the areas in need of standardisation if such obstacles are to be overcome This work by the CPA has prompted the European Commission to submit a standardisation request to the CEN and CENELEC calling for the development of harmonised standards to facilitate greater plastic recycling. While compliance with CEN and CENELEC standards would be voluntary, such standards could interact with the EU’s proposed Ecodesign Regulation and any delegated acts adopted thereto, thereby creating legal obligations for a wide range of actors across plastic value chains.