According to new data from Plastics Recyclers Europe, the continent’s recycling capacity has stagnated with a year-on-year increase of only 6% in 2023; this is reported to mark its lowest growth since 2017.
Europe’s total capacity reportedly reached 13.2 million tonnes in EU27+3 last year. Before this, capacities had apparently doubled in the space of five years, achieving an average growth of 17%.
The data suggests that polyolefin films have retained the highest overall capacity; PET and rigid polyolefins come next on the list. These three materials are said to constitute over three-quarters of Europe’s overall capacity.
Germany currently tops the rankings for the highest installed plastics recycling capacity, falling somewhere between 2 million and 2.5 million tonnes. It is followed by Spain, which has reached approximately 2 million tonnes.
Yet the ‘overall slowdown’ in recycling activities is attributed to high production and energy costs, low demand for plastics recycled in the EU, and imports of virgin and recycled plastics, which are often unverified and fail to align with EU standards. This has raised questions as to whether the EU will meet its targets for recycling and recycled content.
“The challenges the EU’s plastic recycling sector faced in 2022 have been confirmed by the latest figures for 2023,” said Ton Emans, president of Plastics Recyclers Europe. “Additionally, investments have halved, with only 500 million euros in 2023 compared to 1 billion euros that were injected in 2022.”
Now Plastics Recyclers Europe encourages Member States and European institutions to encourage steady growth for plastic recycling capabilities and secure the competitiveness of European industry by enforcing existing legislation.
The full Plastics Recycling Industry Figures 2023 document is available to download via this link.
Not long ago, the organization warned that the “alarming” downward trend in European plastics recycling could put recycling companies out of business “unless the situation is addressed urgently”. It suggested that the biggest issue facing the continent is imported polymers with “questionable claims” of recycled content and “no effective verification and traceability measures” in place.
Our very own Tim Sykes recently spoke to regulatory affairs manager Mathilde Taveau to learn more about the subsequent recession on the European market; she also gave advice as to what regulators and value chain can do to help reverse the trend.
In more positive news, Steel for Packaging Europe recently reported a new record recycling rate for steel packaging, reaching 80.5% in 2022. The figure was generated the figure in line with the harmonized method for calculating packaging recycling rates within the EU and represents a 2% increase in the recycling rate from 2021.
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