(Strasbourg/05.10.2022) The European Parliament has voted by a large majority to significantly reduce the limit values for highly toxic chemicals in waste, the persistent organic pollutants (POPs), from next year. This is essential to ensure that they are not recycled and therefore do not end up in new products such as children's toys or food packaging.

Manuela Ripa, MEP for the Ecological Democratic Party, commented on yesterday's vote: "I helped negotiate this law for my group. It was important to me to regulate the limit values in waste very strictly in the negotiations with the Council and the Commission, because POPs harm people, animals and the environment for generations. These are highly toxic chemicals that remain in the environment for a very long time and accumulate in our food chains. In humans, they can cause cancer and affect the immune, endocrine, reproductive and cardiovascular systems. They pose a particular danger to children. I am therefore delighted that we have adopted stricter limits for five highly hazardous substances, such as PFOA and dioxins. In addition, the inclusion of new chemicals in the list of harmful substances was also approved."

This regulation is an important step towards moving towards non-toxic material cycles and not giving POPs a second life through recycling. "But that is by no means enough! For me, in the interests of our health and especially that of our children and our environment, toxic substances have no place in our products. We must not recycle any more toxic materials. I will continue to campaign for this!" concludes Ripa.