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The downward trend in the European plastics recycling market is alarming, Plastics Recyclers Europe warns, the association of European plastics recyclers, in a recent press release. 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. This downturn will continue unless the situation is addressed urgently.
At the beginning of this year, the plastics recycling industry already warned about the signs of difficult market conditions with no interim prospects of recovery. Ten months later, the primary issue to be addressed continues to be the worrying increase in imports of polymers from outside the EU with questionable claims of recycled content and no effective verification and traceability measures in place.
According to the European association, to answer this situation, it will be important to restrict market entry for imports that fail to meet the EU’s environmental requirements, as recommended in the report on EU Competitiveness authored by Mario Draghi.
