PRE’s Mathilde Taveau: the European plastic recycling recession

In October 2024 Plastics Recyclers Europe issued a statement warning that “The increasing lack of demand for recyclates produced in Europe, the reduced investments in domestic recycling, and the increase in imports of recyclates from outside the EU have been suffocating the European plastics recycling industry in the last few years. These issues are feeding the existing recession on the market - driving many recycling companies out of business in 2023, with further closures happening or planned in the course of 2024.” In this context Mathilde Taveau (Regulatory Affairs Manager at PRE) talks to Tim Sykes about the latest statistics from a European plastic recycling sector in a state of recession, and how regulators and value chain can act to reverse this worrying trend.