PET recycling increases by 15.1% in EU

20-Jul-06

European post-consumer polyethylene terephthalate (PET) collection recycling rates saw a 15.1% increase over the previous year to 796,000 tonnes in 2005, signaling a positive sign for the food and drink bottling and packaging industry. EU environmental legislation requires increasing amounts of packaging to be recycled. If target rates are not achieved, member countries will have to impose more stringent requirements on industry and consumers. The increase in PET collection continues to exceed growth in consumption, as per a report by Petcore, a non-profit European trade association. The largest boost came from Germany where collection shot up 32% to reach over 200,000 tons, followed by significant growth from other countries, especially Poland and France. Collection has also increased in the UK and Ireland, but mostly in the form of mixed plastic waste, which is not included in Petcore's statistics. 57% of the collected PET containers were recycled into polyester fibre products, 16.2% was used for polyester sheet in a range of thermoformed applications where the use of recycled PET tripled over the past two years and re-use back into PET bottles was 15.2%.