NEWS


Packaging recycling rate in EU passes 40%


The recycling rate for plastic packaging in the European Union increased to 40.9% in 2016, according to the latest research commissioned by Plastics- Europe and the European Association of Plastics Recycling and Recovery Organisations (EPRO). This rate – up from 39.5% in 2014 – surpasses the EU’s minimum target of 22.5%, the trade bodies said. The research carried out by Conver-


sio Market & Strategy in Germany covered the EU-28, plus Norway and Switzerland. In total these countries recycled 6.8m tonnes of a total 16.7m tonnes plastic packaging waste arising in 2016. All the countries exceeded the EU minimum targets of 22.5% recy- cling: 26 countries recycled more than 30%, with 15 countries surpassing 40%. In 2014, Czech Republic had the highest recycling rate of 51.2% followed by Germany, Netherlands,


Sweden, Ireland and Spain. Stuart Foster, CEO of Recoup in the


UK and EPRO Director, said: “There is unparalleled interest and focus on plastic packaging resource manage- ment at the moment. These statistics are fundamental in understanding the current position across Europe and possible ways forwards around house- hold, commercial and agricultural sector plastic packaging recycling.” The study showed 64% of the post-consumer plastic packaging waste is generated from households, and 36% comes from trade and industry. The recycling rate for the trade and industry sector reached 46.5% (compared with 42.8% in 2014), while the recycling rate for the house- hold segment was 37.8% (37.7%). Energy recovery from waste plastic


packaging was 38.8% in 2016 (38.5% in 2014). In total 79.7% (78.0%) of all


Recycling poster produced by Wastebuster campaign in UK schools


plastic packaging waste was recycled or recovered for energy in 2016, with the remainder going to landfills and incineration without energy recovery. The recycling result for packaging


of 40.9% is better than for other plastic applications, the organisation said. The overall recycling rate for plastics reached 31.1% in 2016. � www.epro-plasticsrecycling.org � www.plasticseurope.org


Greater EU capacity for flexible PE recycling


Europe’s production capacity for recycling flexible polyeth- ylene has been “increasing significantly” over the last years, according to the Plastics Recyclers Europe industry body. Since 2015, the EU’s installed capacity for recycling flexible PE has grown from approximately 1.5m tpa to 2.3m tpa, said PRE. The EU recycling rate for these materials is roughly 31%, based on the total extrusion capacity of 7.4m tpa for flexible PE. Five countries, Spain


(18%), Germany (17%), Italy (13%), Poland (10%) and France (6%) represent nearly two-thirds of the installed


4


investments in sorting and recycling plants.” He said these regulatory


LDPE film bales


recycling capacity. The sources of the flexible PE plastics waste are commer- cial and retailer waste (43%), production waste (23%), agriculture waste (17%), and household packaging (13%). Ton Emans, PRE President and Chairman of its PE Working Group, said: “The plastics recycling sector has


PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD | March/April 2018 Ton Emans, President of PRE


been very dynamic in the last few years. This shows that the industry is paving the way to enhance the circularity of plastics. In addition, the Circular Economy Package and the Plastics Strategy give clear targets to reach. On the other hand, China’s ban on import is further driving


pressures have already had “a positive impact as we see an acceleration of new projects across Europe. This is especially the case for household flexible plastics waste”.


“Nonetheless, much effort is still needed in terms of design for recycling,” said Emans. “Multilayers materi- als remain unrecyclable and thus there is a need to move to monomaterial alternatives which can be recycled. This will enable further develop- ments in recycling of flexible plastics in Europe.” � www.plasticsrecyclers.eu


www.plasticsrecyclingworld.com


PHOTO: PLASTIC EXPERT


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