Falling oil prices could reduce demand for recycled plastics, which could create problems for the European Union’s plans to increase recycling rates, European Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius said in an interview with Reuters on Monday. He also expressed concern about the impact of the random disposal of plastic masks and gloves used as a means of protection against coronavirus.

Lockdown restrictions imposed around the world to slow the spread of new coronavirus have led to falling demand for fossil fuels, and the price of oil has plummeted, resulting in lower prices for new plastics than recycled plastics. This threatens plans to step up plastic recycling in the EU, which generates around 26 million tonnes of plastic waste annually, with only 30% of it being recycled.

Plastic recycling centers in Europe have limited their operations after the pandemic and there are indications that demand has fallen, with customers of such centers giving up “eco-targets” due to the economic downturn.

However, so far, the companies appear to have remained “on schedule” on the European Union’s voluntary target of reusing 10 million tonnes of recycled plastics by 2025, Sinkevicius said, according to Agerpres.

According to him, the European Commission has so far received relatively few requests for exceptions to EU environmental rules as a result of the coronavirus crisis, but there are countries that have struggled to meet recycling targets even before the pandemic.

The EU will ban a number of disposable plastic items from next year. Last month, EU leaders agreed to introduce a tax on non-recyclable plastic packaging at the bloc level to help raise funds for Europe’s recovery from the economic chaos created by the virus.

At the same time, the €750 billion recovery fund set by the EU could also help support the recycling sector, the European commissioner said.