New study says Europe is falling behind on plastic bottle collection

A new study has revealed that Europe is falling behind on meeting the European Union (EU) target of 90 percent collection of plastic bottles by 2030. Results of the London-based Independent Commodity Intelligence Services (ICIS) survey on the recycling of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in Europe in 2019 show that progress has been made but is being threatened by inadequate collection strategies and high contamination levels.

Overall, the region saw a recycling rate of 46 percent, which is 2 percent higher than in 2018.

“This is a marginal improvement, but still less than half of the bottles put into the market are recycled,” Senior Analyst of Plastic Recycling at ICIS Helen McGeough says. “Given that PET is one of the most recyclable polymers in the market and the recycling infrastructure is more mature than other polymers, the question remains as to why this is not advancing to higher recycling rates.”

Failings of the collection strategy

Collection volumes of postconsumer PET bottles reached 2.2 million tons in 2019, an increase of 5 percent from 2018, which is the highest growth rate in several years.

Although the feedstock supply has increased in volume, so did contamination levels. The average yield across the region was 69.5 percent in 2019, down from 71 percent in 2018. According to McGeough, this was “unsurprising given the reduction of PET waste exports to China, due to the waste import ban, and pushback from other Asian markets unable and/or unwilling to accept shipments and become a dumping ground for the rest of the world. These typically lower quality materials have since been absorbed into the domestic waste stream and contribute to the overall reduction in yield.”

Struggling to meet recycling targets

According to the study, the bottle industry must achieve 25 percent recycled content in PET bottles by 2025, with anticipated growth in the PET penetration of the food-contact bottle market at 14.5 percent, rising from 10.7 percent in 2018. However, this is still more than 10 percent below the mandated target and way below the ambitions of brands going way beyond these levels, up to 100 percent for segments of their portfolios. 

“The 2019 survey shows improvement in many aspects of the rPET supply into the market,” McGeough says. “However, there are still challenges to overcome, mainly at the front end of the chain. These include the improved collection in terms of quality as well as quantity, improved design for recycling and sorting to reduce waste rates, and growth in the supply of highest quality rPET to meet the frantic demand of bottlers.”