Europe is importing more PET, with the amount doubling to 1.9 million tonnes between 2021 and 2022. Recyclers have warned that recycled PET imports might have a negative impact on future investments in new collection, sorting and recycling infrastructure in Europe. The ramifications for recyclers and for the environment would be tremendous, according to a new analysis carried out by Systemiq on behalf of the chemical firm Eastman and the association Plastics Recyclers Europe (PRE).
"This analysis shows that whilst recycled content targets could still be met through imports of non-European recycled PET if this trend continues, recycling rate targets for plastic packaging may not be met for PET packaging," the authors noted. Given that more PET ended up in waste-to-energy (wte) plants than recycling facilities, European greenhouse gas emissions from end-of-life PET might more than double.
The new analysis cited figures from the European Commission's DG-Sante Register showing that around 100 plastic recycling facilities located outside the EU and the UK have been accredited to supply recycled plastic suitable for food-contact applications to the EU. More than half of these registrations came from non-OECD countries, to which EU plastic waste cannot be exported starting in 2026.
"This means that in future any recycled PET imported from non-OECD countries would not be from EU PET waste and so the EU would be using other countries’ waste to meet targets," the authors pointed out. The report stated that 14 of these facilities were located in India, twelve in Turkey, nine each in China and South Korea and 16 others in South, South-East and East Asia.
Systemiq has examined two scenarios which illustrate the potential implications for the EU if recycled PET imports were to stall or slow future investments in the scale-up of European recycling systems. Europe’s recycling industry has already sounded the alarm with regard to the impact imports stand to have on the EU recycling market....
