Research from the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre indicates that plastic quantities rose by 11% across select European countries between 2011 and 2025 – the only material to demonstrate an upward trend.
The study has investigated the plastic, cardboard, paper, glass, metal, and composite material packaging placed on the market in 19 Member States, which are said to represent more than 97% of the EU population.
According to its findings, the total amount of packaging placed on the market reached 98 kg per capita in 2024. 97% of this figure was attributed to food and beverage packaging.
Glass packaging was thought to make up 75% of the overall weight due to its density. Reusable and single-use glass bottles were thought to make up the largest share of packaging placed on the market, with beer taking the lead at approximately 16.5 million tonnes.
Per-capita data revealed that, on average, 14 kg of plastic packaging was placed on the market per person across the 19 countries. The exact amounts differed, with 16 kg per person placed on the German market, and half that amount on the Swedish market.
Bottled water, dairy products and soft drinks were found to make up the highest weight of plastic packaging in 2024.
In 2025, 5.9 million tonnes of plastic packaging were reportedly placed on the market – equating to 14 kg per capita across the countries in question. The exact amount varied across nations, with consumption found to have increased in Ireland, Romania and Poland; meanwhile, plastic packaging was thought to remain ‘relatively stable’ on the French, Dutch, and Belgian markets.
In Italy, plastic water bottles were said to comprise 46% of its total plastic consumption, yet the percentage falls as low as 6% in Sweden. Most EU countries predominantly use PET to manufacture beverage bottles, the study indicates, but it is less common – sometimes even second to polypropylene – in countries like Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands and Sweden.
The full study is available to read here.
The research comes after the European Commission published a report detailing how Member States are reducing single-use plastic food and drink containers in line with the Single-Use Plastics Directive.
Among its findings, the Commission claimed that 2.54 million tonnes of plastic bottles reached in the EU market in 2022, and that countries with the highest populations reported the highest absolute amounts.
Twelve countries were also found to have surpassed the 77% collection target for single-use plastic bottles: Estonia, Poland, Finland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Lithuania, Croatia, Iceland, Slovakia, and Belgium.
In other news, the Joint Research Centre recently published a proposal to harmonize waste sorting labels under the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation – recommending unified pictograms, colour-coded symbols and receptacles, and more.
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