PRE warns recycled plastic imports threaten EU industry

According to Plastics Recyclers Europe (PRE), the plastics recycling market in Europe was destabilized throughout 2023, which saw prices for recyclates decrease by up to 50 percent through October, while cheap imports from outside of the EU increased significantly. The Brussels-based association says this is creating an unbalanced market with serious environmental consequences. This trend plus the EU's declining competitiveness and the lack of a level playing field are accelerating the EU's de-industrialization, PRE adds.

While PRE says the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) is meant to enhance circularity by harmonizing practices across EU member states, addressing EU waste effectively and creating a market for recycled products, the policy direction taken in the trilogues is fading its initial optimism. Allowing non-EU plastic to contribute to the targets for packages produced and filled in the EU while not having any reliable control and verification mechanisms implemented would negatively impact a shrinking and threatened market, the association says.

In 2023, the market already responded to this destabilization by increasing exports of EU plastic scrap by 18 percent, PRE says, citing Eurostat figures. These circumstances result in more EU waste being landfilled and incinerated, leading to pollution and jeopardizing the environmental objectives of the European Green Deal, the association adds.

A report released by Systemiq in July of last year, commissioned by Eastman and financed by Eastman and Interzero, that looks at polyethylene terephthalate (PET) supports these claims, PRE says. The report warns of the impact of reducing or stopping future investments in Europe's recycling systems. Less or no investments in the EU would lead to European greenhouse gas emissions more than doubling by 2040 as more plastic would be incinerated rather than recycled. The study also shows the PET recycling rate would fall to between 32 percent and 38 percent by 2040 compared with the estimated 67 percent in the circular scenario.

PRE says the PPWR must ensure a policy framework that addresses the supply and demand of recycled content in a coherent way, together with finding a sustainable solution to waste management in the EU.

As things stand, the association says, legislators are sending a message that investments in the European plastics recycling value chain are not worth making. Recyclers will suffer the initial consequences, but converters and raw material producers will be next.

PRE is calling on EU institutions to introduce safeguards for the European plastics industry and level the playing field, noting that claims about transitioning to a circular economy and ensuring the long-term competitiveness of the EU will be empty words if the EU institutions fail to take the necessary measures to make these goals come to fruition.

In a December 2023 news release, the association calls for European action to be focused on accelerating the transition toward circular plastics by addressing systemic barriers, promoting the enhancement of harmonized collection systems across the EU, establishing realistic recycling targets and recycled content targets and taking decisive action to combat greenwashing by promoting transparency and establishing a level playing field for all products, including imported ones, through the implementation of reliable verification and certification systems

PRE says forward-looking policies based on scientific assessments and robust data should be the cornerstone of European action.

Ton Emans, PRE President, says, “Plastics recycling has proved itself as one of the vital components of a circular economy in Europe. To unlock its full potential, necessary incentives, targeting the entire value chain must be set to drive investments towards EU recycling capacities and technological developments.”