Belgium (Brussels Morning Newspaper), The average PET beverage bottles’ recycled content rate in EU countries has reached 24%, it has been revealed.
But campaigners say more work is needed to achieve the 2025 EU targets.
The year 2022 was “unprecedented” for PET, which stands for polyethylene terephthalate, a common kind of plastic used in the beverage industry.
Despite extreme uncertainty, figures show progress in the market.
However, campaigners say the disparities in the collection, sorting, and recycling of PET around Europe will need to be addressed to achieve the EU recycling targets in the mid and long term.
New figures show that PET collection and recycling accelerated in 2022 ahead of the new EU Single-Use Plastic Directive targets. The collection rate of PET in 2022 was 60%, showing an increase from the 45% achieved in 2020. Furthermore, the sorted recycling rate for PET beverage bottles alone was estimated to be 75%, compared to 61% in 2020.
This collection rate is expected to keep growing in years to come, due to the wider rollout of deposit-return systems across Europe. In 2022, 12 countries in the EU 27+3 were reported to have this collection method operational, while 9 have taken the political decision to install DRS shortly.
As for the collection, almost 2.7 million tonnes of PET waste were sorted for recycling. In addition, the total installed recycling capacity was around 3 million tonnes, out of which 1.4 million tonnes were destined for food contact applications.
Packaging was the dominant end-use for rPET in 2022, with 48% used in bottles. This shows a very positive increase in bottle-to-bottle recycling in Europe. 25% of rPET was used in sheets (trays), and the remainder was used in non-packaging applications including polyester fibers (15%), strapping (6%), and others (6%). The value chain has also already taken steps towards tray recycling and chemical recycling.
To continue the trend campaigners say the disparities between EU Member States in terms of collection, recycling, and uptake will need to be tackled, as today some countries are not likely to meet 2025 targets if no further investment is maintained.
They call for specific actions per Member State to improve the waste collection and recycling infrastructure and take steps to meet the targets.
