Latest market data shows stagnation in plastic recycling capacities

The newest data from Plastics Recyclers Europe, the association of European plastics recyclers, points to a slowdown in the growth of Europe’s installed plastics recycling capacity. In 2023, the total capacity reached 13.2 million tonnes in EU27+3 which marks an increase of 6% year-on-year, making it the lowest advancement since 2017. Until this point, capacities had doubled in five years with an average growth of 17%, which reflects the sharp decline of the growth.

“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.”

When analysing the figures, polyolefin films retain the highest overall capacity, followed by PET and rigid polyolefins - accounting for more than three-fourths of the overall European capacity. At the country level, Germany holds the highest installed plastics recycling capacity in the continent reaching between 2 and 2.5 million tonnes, followed by Spain with around 2 million tonnes.

These new figures show an overall slowdown in recyclers' activities, raising concerns about the viability of achieving the EU recycling and recycled content targets. Some of the leading causes of this situation are the higher production and energy costs for European companies, the lack of demand for EU-recycled plastics, and the increase in imports of virgin and recycled plastic from outside the EU - which are often unverified and not on a par with the requirements with which EU-recycled plastics comply.

Plastics Recyclers Europe urges Member States and European Institutions to act now and enforce existing legislation to secure the competitiveness of the EU’s industry and ensure the steady growth of plastic recycling capacities.