This new proposal, which is part of the EU's comprehensive Plastics Strategy, puts forward a set of rules to tackle the 10 most found plastic waste items on Europe’s beaches as well as fishing gear.

Based on its longstanding support to the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD 2008/56/EC) through the MSFD Technical Group on Marine Litter, EU Member States and other stakeholders, the JRC developed a harmonised EU data set of the most common marine beach litter items in Europe in 2016 (Top Marine Beach Litter Items in Europe, in press*).

This data provided DG Environment with basic information on the leaking of plastics into the environment. It was published in the EU Plastics Strategy (the world’s first comprehensive Plastics Strategy, adopted in January 2018), and the results of the data analysis were used to prepare today's legislative proposal on single-use plastics and fishing gear.

_{* Addamo A.M., Laroche P., Hanke G., Top Marine Beach Litter Items in Europe, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2018, ISBN 978-92-79-85951-9, doi:10.2760/824806, JRC108181}

Links:

• Proposal for a Directive on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment & Annex
• European Commission Press release: Single-use plastics: New EU rules to reduce marine litter
• Factsheet
• Impact assessment & Summary
• Directive 2008/56/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 2008 establishing a framework for community action in the field of marine environmental policy (Marine Strategy Framework Directive)
• MSFD Technical Group on Marine Litter
• A European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy (COM/2018/028 final)