After EU negotiators reached a new agreement to treat sewage, beauty companies will be required to pay more for cleaning up microplastics.
According to a draft rule that follows the “polluter-pays principle”, companies selling medicines and cosmetics must cover at least 80% extra costs to eliminate tiny pollutants that contaminate urban wastewater. Members of the bloc have said that the government will cover the remaining costs to avoid vital products becoming too expensive.
Virginijus Sinkevicius said that the measures would protect citizens from harmful discharges such as pharmaceuticals and cosmetics which end up in waterbodies. This will protect our health and make our water clean.
These rules, which were agreed upon by the European Parliament and Council of Europe, but have not yet been formally adopted, impose stricter requirements for removing nutrients from water, and establish new standards regarding micropollutants. The new rules also expand the scope of the law.
By 2035, all EU member states must remove organic matter before releasing urban wastewater into the environment. This will apply to any community with more than 1,000 residents. By 2045, they will be required to remove nitrogen andphosphorus from all treatment plants that serve more than 10,000 residents. According to the European Parliament, they will have to take an additional step to remove “a broad spectrum” of micropollutants.
The government will also be required to monitor sewage for microplastics and “forever chemicals” such as per- and polyfluoroalkyls (PFAS), and key health indicators, like antimicrobial resistant.
The member states are slow to enforce the existing rules for treating sewage. The European Commission sent Spain to the European Court of Justice last month for not complying with wastewater regulations in 225 localities.
Nils Torvalds was the Finnish MEP in charge of this proposal. He is part of the liberal Renew group. We have made sure that this legislation will not impact the affordability of medicine in a disproportionate way.
The agreement will increase the gap between environmental protections in the EU and UK after Brexit. In a report published earlier this month, it was revealed that UK environmental regulations are lagging behind those of the EU in almost all areas. It also showed that the UK’s water industry has delayed plans for tackling the country’s sewage pollution problem.