The European region recycled 29 percent of all its plastics packaging in 2008, easily surpassing the European
Union’s target of 22.5 percent, according to a new report.
The report was a collaboration of four European trade organizations: PlasticsEurope, European Plastics
Converters, European Plastics Recyclers, and the European Association of Plastics Recycling and Recovery
Organizations (EPRO).
According to the report, 10 European countries —
Germany, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Belgium, Sweden, Austria,
Switzerland, Norway, the Netherlands and Slovenia — recycled more than
30 percent of their plastic packaging. Greece, Lithuania and Malta, on
the other hand, recycled only about 10 percent.
The report praises several valuable recycling
initiatives taking place in Europe, including the PVC industry’s Vinyl
2010 program, as well
as schemes to sort mixed packaging plastics.
In terms of plastics recovery, 51.3 percent of
post-consumer plastic in Europe was recovered in 2008, with the rest
going to disposal.
Of the 51.3 percent recovered, 5.3 million metric
tons (11.7 billion pounds) were recycled — as material and feedstock —
and 7.5 million metric tons (16.5 billion pounds) were recovered as
energy, according to the report.
“We distinguish between recycling and energy
recovery,” said EPRO general secretary Peter Sundt. “But it all counts
as recovery of plastics
as long as it is not incineration without energy recovery.”
The report also says that, despite 3 percent annual
growth in post-consumer waste over the past decade, the amount of waste
sent to landfills has remained stable.
According to EPRO, Europe’s success in plastic recycling packaging came even though the industry was struggling to
survive the economic
recession.Global production fell to 245 million metric tons (540
billion pounds) in 2008 from 260 million metric tons the year before,
with
demand from European processors dropping 7.5 percent to 48.5 million metric tons (10.7 billion pounds).
In Europe, Germany is the major producer of
plastics, accounting for 7.5 percent of global production, followed by
Benelux (4.5 percent),
France (3 percent), Italy (2 percent) and the United Kingdom (1.5 percent) and Spain (1.5 percent).
Packaging remains the biggest end-use market for
plastics (38 percent), followed by construction (28 percent), auto (7
percent), electrical and electronic (6 percent). Other applications,
including medical and leisure, account for 28 percent, according to the report.