THE SENATE

OF THE PARLIAMENT OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC

9TH TERM

297TH

RESOLUTION OF THE SENATE

Delivered on the 12th session held on 22nd August 2013

on the Green Paper on a European Strategy on Plastic Waste in the Environment

/Senate Press no. K 049/09/

The Senate

I.

1. Is aware of

the acute need to solve the issue of plastic waste and, therefore, it welcomes the Commission´s initiative to address this problem;

2. Finds

that the most important issue within the public consultation launched by the Green Paper is the pollution of the marine environment and that this issue should be of primary focus in the Commission’s follow-up work;

3. Recalls

its Resolution on the Communication from the Commission - A Blueprint to Safeguard Europe's Water Resources, in which it, inter alia, called on the Government to raise awareness of tap water quality, which can lead to increased pressure to reduce the consumption of bottled water, resulting in less plastic waste;

II.

1.  Believes

that the efforts to solve the issue of the pollution of the marine environment should be based on a proposal for a legislative act by the European Commission since current regulation at national level has failed to produce satisfactory results;

2.  Considers

waste prevention and minimization as well as encouragement of producers to ensure the highest possible degree of recyclability of their products to be main measures to deal with the issue of plastic waste; it also finds appropriate to consider the possibility of using plastic waste for energy generation in accordance with the European waste management hierarchy;

3.  Points out

that the bulk of municipal waste is made up of plastic materials and ,therefore, it does not consider the possibility of a future landfill ban on plastic waste as a suitable solution to the current situation;

III.

1.  Requests

the Government to inform the Senate about the way this position was taken into account and about further initiatives following the Green Paper;

2.  Authorises

the President of the Senate to forward this Resolution to the European Commission.

Milan Štěch

sign manual

President of the Senate

Tomáš Grulich

sign manual

Senate Verifier