Back How much plastic packaging waste do we recycle?

5 November 2019

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In the EU, an estimated 42% of plastic packaging waste was recycled in 2017. In seven EU Member States, more than half of the plastic packaging waste generated was recycled in 2017.

Compared with 2005, the recycling rate of plastic packaging waste increased by 18 percentage points (pp) in the EU (from 24% in 2005 to 42% in 2017). This increasing trend is observed at varied levels in all EU Member States, except Croatia.

 

Recycling_rate_of_plastic_packaging_waste_2005-2017

The source dataset is accessible here.

 

In 2017, the highest recycling rate of plastic packaging waste was recorded in Lithuania (74%), ahead of Bulgaria (65%), Cyprus (62%, 2016 data), Slovenia (60%), Czechia (59%), Slovakia (52%) and the Netherlands (50%).

 

Recycling_rate_of_plastic_packaging_waste_in_the_EU_Member_States

The source dataset is accessible here.

 

In contrast, less than one third of plastic packaging waste was recycled in Malta (24%, 2016 data), Estonia, France and Finland (each 27%), Ireland (31%), Hungary (32%), Luxembourg and Austria (33%).

 

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