The European Union plastic policy

Abstract

In January 2018, the European Commission has adopted an “European Strategy for plastics in a Circular Economy” with the aim of improving economics of recycling and reducing the waste of plastics. The strategy wants to increase plastic sustainability in the EU, to encourage environmental friendly behaviours and also to compensate the lost in the EU budget due to the UK withdrawal. This thesis has the objective to analyse the policy strategy proposed by the European Commission and study its effects on human behaviours through the multivariate regression model. The first part of this work is devoted to explain and clarify the concept of “Circular Economy” as well as the process of recycling of plastic. The second part, on the contrary, provides a comparative analysis between the EU strategy and some examples of the existent tax policies in the world.