With the equivalent of more than 60 billion bottles recycled in 2012, PET is the most commonly recycled plastic material in Europe, according to Brussels-based trade association Petcore Europe.
Petcore Europe chairman Roberto Bertaggia says: “Despite the poor economic situation in the European region, the consumption of PET bottles is still showing clear trends of penetration into new market segments through innovative packaging and the recognised capability of PET to be recycled.”
From a sustainability perspective, Bertaggia adds, the industry is “thrilled” to have achieved an overall collection rate in 2012 of more than 52% of all post-consumer PET bottles available in its region.
“With the exception of two members, all EU Member States managed to achieve PET recycling rates above the Packaging & Packaging Waste Directive target of 22.5% for plastics,” he says.
Casper van den Dungen, PET chairman at the Plastics Recyclers Europe professional body, underlines that: “The overall European collection of PET bottles to 1.68 million tonnes reflects an increase of 5.6% compared to the previous year.
“This has helped to ease the overcapacity situation of recyclers with an average plant utilisation of 80%,” he says.
In 2012 the fibres market was still the single largest end-market for recycled PET, van den Dungen adds, but strong growth in the sheet and bottle markets is putting these three markets at similar levels.
The report Post Consumer PET recycling in Europe 2012 and Prospects to 2017 was prepared for Petcore Europe and Plastics Recyclers Europe by PCI PET Packaging, Resin & Recycling Ltd.
In this report, the European region refers to the EU27 countries (in 2012) plus Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey.
