- It is expected to support 125 projects that seek to increase environmental protection and improve the management of waste from third parties, as well as R+D for eco-design and digitalisation to innovate in terms of processes and organisation
- The beneficiary companies, which will receive aid of between 100,000 euros and 9 million euros, are distributed in 14 autonomous communities
The Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO), has published the “Proposal for a provisional resolution of the call for the granting of subsidies, on a competitive basis, for the promotion of the Circular Economy in the plastics sector within the framework of the Circular Economy PERTE of the Recovery Plan, Transformation and Resilience”, which includes aid for more than 150 million euros, which will generate a total investment in the sector of more than 530 million euros.
Due to the great demand that the call has had in the plastics sector and the high number of requests received, the call, which was initially endowed with 97.5 million, has increased its endowment by another 57 million.
Of the 201 applications received, 125 projects have been selected (seven of them are carried out by groups that bring together 14 companies). In terms of their nature, 48.12% are led by SMEs (24.82% by small companies and 23.31% by medium-sized companies), while the rest, 51.87%, are not classified as SMEs.
In total, these initiatives will be carried out by 132 companies that stand out for their commitment to the circularity of their projects, and which will receive grants of between 100,000 euros and about 9 million euros per project. Projects must be completed by 31 October 2027 at the latest.
BREAKDOWN BY CATEGORY
The category that receives the most aid is the action aimed at improving waste management for third parties, which presents 45 projects with a contribution of 84.2 million euros, which highlights the role that the implementation of innovative technologies that promote the circular economy in the plastics sector is acquiring. The projects that group together the increase in the level of environmental protection of the beneficiaries (environmental improvements of the entity that reduce the impacts of its products or its own waste) have 62 projects and 61.6 million in aid, revealing that reducing the extraction and consumption of virgin raw materials, the generation of waste, the emission of microplastics or the use of polymers and materials with lower environmental impacts is one of the major concerns of companies in this call.
In this line, it also highlights that among the beneficiaries there are 13 projects for research and development for ecodesign (3.1 million) and five digitalisation projects to innovate in terms of processes and organisation for organisational and process innovations that have an impact on greater circularity (2.8 million).
TYPE OF PROJECTS
Among the beneficiaries are projects for the productive improvement of the process of joining plastic components in the automotive field; the reduction of the consumption of virgin raw materials and the increase in the efficiency of the use of materials; the adaptation of packaging lines to be able to use recycled plastic; the reduction of the consumption of virgin raw materials through the reuse of pre- and post-consumer waste; the recycling and recovery of plastic waste; new sustainable packaging solutions based on the circular economy for the logistics industry; the development of integrated plastic waste management platforms based on the optimisation and digitalisation of plastic recycling plants for maximum product traceability; or the manufacture of adult diapers with a lower content of non-biodegradable materials and waste reduction.
The proposed projects are spread over 14 Autonomous Communities: Andalusia, Aragon, Balearic Islands, Castilla y León, Castilla-La Mancha, Catalonia, Community of Madrid, Autonomous Community of Navarre, Valencian Community, Extremadura, Galicia, Basque Country, Principality of Asturias and Region of Murcia.
CIRCULAR ECONOMY PERTE
The Circular Economy PERTE, financed by the Next Generation EU funds, aligned with the Spanish Circular Economy Strategy and European strategies, has public aid worth 492 million, with which it is expected to mobilise resources of more than 1,200 million euros during its execution.
The plastics sector in Spain is of great importance. Proof of this is the turnover of the plastics manufacturing subsector in primary forms, which rises slightly above 17% of the total of the chemical industry.
Plastic is, therefore, a relevant material for our economy, which has an important role in many processes and sectors such as food or health, but which we often misuse, decoupled from its characteristics. About two-thirds of the world’s plastics production is used for short-life cycle products, and one-third of plastic is disposable plastic.
Unsustainable models of plastic production and consumption, anchored in the linear economy, and the lack of proper management of its waste have made plastic pollution one of the environmental challenges of our time.
CURBING PLASTIC POLLUTION
According to the IPBES (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services), since 1980 plastic pollution has multiplied by 10 in our seas and already constitutes more than 80% of marine litter. This greatly affects ecosystems and, especially, endangered species such as sea turtles (86% affected) and marine mammals and birds (43% and 44% respectively). But also to economic sectors such as fishing or tourism, and it has effects on our health through microplastics.
The use of secondary raw materials minimises the environmental impacts of resource extraction and waste generation, but the penetration of these materials is not consolidated at a constant pace and is limited by a fragmented market, not unrelated to the behaviour of the prices of virgin raw materials, in a context of the use of plastic for functions unrelated to the characteristics of the material and the abuse of the superfluous use of plastic.
Added to this are the costs of collecting, treating and managing plastics, the low availability of recycled plastic polymers and the lack of available technologies for the recovery of certain polymers, additives or multilayer products. On the other hand, the small size of most companies hinders innovation, the ability to adapt production to new circular models, and the professionalization of management.
Therefore, public support is necessary to encourage the transformation of the sector towards a sustainable and circular model, with special emphasis on reducing resource extraction, waste generation and increasing reuse and recycling rates.
