Dive summary:
- Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle recycling across Europe has hit a standstill, leaving recycling companies working at less than 75% capacity.
- Plastics Recyclers Europe (EuPR), which makes up approximately 80% of the plastic recycling capacity in Europe, claim that "persistent structural market failures" as the collection infrastructures are "reaching their limit" with collection rates have stagnating at 50%.
- While there is still a demand for and increased investments in recycled plastics, EuPR says that companies are making more lightweight and complex bottles which are more difficult and costly to recycle.
From the article:
In order to protect the recycling sector in Europe the group is calling for the European Union to extend an import duty on virgin PET entering the EU from India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand, which has been in place since 2000.
The duty is currently under review by the European Commission, having been renewed for a further five years in February 2007, and EuPR claims that removal of the import duty could be damaging for the recycling sector as it would create an ‘imbalance’ in the market.
