Steady growth for EU recycling but “radical” changes ahead

Plastics Recyclers Europe (PRE) confirmed steady growth of plastics recycling during its recently held Annual Meeting, with the association’s President, Ton Emans, outlining “radical change” in the plastics recycling industry in the coming years.

“The coming years will bring radical changes in the plastics recycling industry. We need measures to create a market for recycled plastics so that the market pulls recyclable plastics out of the landfills. The market barriers restricting the use of recycled plastics should be lifted by the upcoming revision of the European waste legislation,” Emans commented at the meeting.

“The recent public consultations made by the European Commission demonstrate that the European citizens are asking to create sustainable plastics which are recycled at their end-of-life. The Commission, Parliament and Member States will now have to translate these expectations into efficient legislations in order to steer the needed market changes,” he continued.

PRE, which is the professional representative body of plastics recyclers in Europe celebrated the breakthrough of 100 members at the meeting and now counts 114 companies in total.