“The future of the recycling industry is at stake and immediate action in form of enforcement measures is needed to avoid a shutdown of recycling plants across Europe”, commented Ton Emans, PRE president. “Ceasing recycling activities would have knock-on effects on jobs, overall economy in Europe and the environment” he added.
The declining market situation applies to all recycled polymers and is best represented in the PET industry. Due to the lack of a level-playing field, PET imports to the EU have increased by 20 % from Q2 2022 to Q2 20231, resulting in low demand for EU rPET. Consequently, these disruptive market dynamics led to an estimated 10 % decrease in rPET2 over the same period.