Plastic waste treatment in Europe
In Europe, the most used way to dispose of plastic waste is energy recovery, which means turning plastic waste into usable heat, electricity, or fuel through incineration or other processes. Recycling is the second most used way of treating plastic waste.
Half of the plastic collected for recycling is exported to be treated in countries outside the EU. Reasons for export include the lack of capacity, technology or financial resources to treat the waste locally. EU exports of all types of waste to non-EU countries reached 33 million tonnes in 2021. The majority of waste consists of ferrous and nonferrous metal scrap as well as paper, plastic, textile and glass wastes and mainly goes to Turkey, India and Egypt.
Previously, a significant share of the exported plastic waste was shipped to China, but restrictions on imports of plastic waste in China will likely decrease EU exports. This poses the risk of increased incineration and landfilling of plastic waste in Europe. Meanwhile, the EU is trying to find circular and climate-friendly ways of managing its plastic waste.
The low share of plastic recycling in the EU means significant losses for the economy as well as for the environment.
About 22 million tonnes of plastic found its way into soils, rivers and oceans in 2019, and plastic leakage is projected to double by 2060.
In 2019, plastics generated 1.8 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions – 3.4% of global emissions – with 90% of these emissions coming from their production and conversion from fossil fuels. By 2060, emissions from the plastics lifecycle are set to more than double, reaching 4.3 billion tonnes of GHG emissions.