The planned closure of four plants that chemically recycle plastics seems to confirm the conclusion of a new report by the industry association Plastics Europe (PDF): that plastics recycling in Europe is in trouble.
In the report, the organization finds that growth in the production of circular plastics—defined as plastics that are recycled or made from biomaterials—declined from 13.6% in 2022 to 1.2% in 2024. Production in 2024 was 8.7 million metric tons, 15.8% of Europe’s total plastic output. By the same year, the recycling rate for collected plastic waste had crept up to 29.6%; the waste that wasn’t recycled ended up in landfills or was incinerated.
“It is deeply concerning that, just when Europe should be accelerating the transition to a circular economy, we see a dramatic slowdown,” Rob Ingram, president of Plastics Europe and CEO of the plastics maker Ineos Olefins & Polymers Europe, says in an email.
Like the report does, Ingram blames the slowdown in the growth of recycling on high prices for energy and feedstocks, fees on carbon emissions, and a lack of fair trade. As a result, Europe’s plastics manufacturers “are in survival mode” and unable to make necessary investments in circularity, Ingram says.
Europe’s plastics transition is slowing just as global competitors—particularly ones in China and the rest of Asia—are accelerating output of circular plastics, Plastics Europe finds in the report. “As the global transition accelerates, Europe’s leadership in circular plastics risks being eclipsed by China and other Asian markets,” the group states.
Recyclers are increasingly deciding they can’t operate in this environment. Plastic Energy, which converts waste plastic into pyrolysis oil, has appointed corporate insolvency administrators for its UK operations after getting into financial difficulty.
And the waste management company Viridor says it plans to close its three European plants, in Norway, Denmark, and Sweden, that chemically recycle plastic waste. “Plastics recycling markets in the EU and UK remain under significant pressure, with weak demand due to unclarity in regulations and low-cost virgin imports making the sector commercially uninvestable,” the company says in a press release.
Companies in Spain appear to be an anomaly. Greenertis and 2GCPR are building chemical recycling plants in the country. Meanwhile, Repsol is investing more than $900 million to build a plastic-waste-to-methanol plant in Tarragona, Spain, that is due to open in 2029.
