For a while, it appeared that the EU might become a net importer of plastic waste last year. The volumes of third-country plastic waste imports and exports converged, with imports rising and exports trending lower amid brisk demand from the European plastic recycling and converting industry, mainly at the start of 2022. But the economic downswing that started last summer and continues to this day sent demand for imports from countries outside the EU falling while exports rose sharply.
Recent figures from the European statistical office Eurostat indicate that the 27 EU member states exported almost 15 per cent more waste plastic to countries outside the union in the first half of this year than in the same period last year. EU waste plastic imports dropped by 10 per cent in the same period....
