Europe making positive plastic progress
February 14, 2018
According to Recycling Magazine, the EU’s recycling rate for plastics is currently “roughly 31 percent” and further developments are in store.
Since 2015, as the magazine reports, “the installed capacity for recycling flexible PE has grown from approximately 1.5 million tonnes per year to 2.3 million tonnes per year.”
Data was collected from 174 plastic recyclers spread across Europe, and it was discovered that five nations in particular – Spain, Germany, Italy, Poland and France – “represent nearly two thirds of the installed recycling capacity.”
In addition, analysis revealed that the main sources of flexible PE plastics waste have been revealed as commercial and retail waste (43 percent), production waste (23 percent), agricultural waste (17 percent) and household packaging (13 percent).
Ton Emans, President of PRE and Chairman of the PE Working Group, said,
“The plastics recycling sector has 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 investments in sorting and recycling plants.”
He went on to say, “The Plastics Strategy of the Commission and the Chinese import ban have already a positive impact as we see an acceleration of new projects across Europe. This is especially the case for household flexible plastics waste. The latest technological developments enable efficient sorting, washing, extrusion and filtering of the plastics. Nonetheless, much effort is still needed in terms of Design for Recycling. Multilayers materials remain unrecyclable and thus there is a need to move to monomaterial alternatives which can be recycled. This will enable further developments in recycling of flexible plastics in Europe.”
Categories : Around the Industry
