The European plastics industry will apparently produce significantly less plastic from raw materials from chemical recycling this year than previously announced. This is the result of research by NDR.
In 2023, the Plastics Europe association predicted that around 900,000 tonnes of plastics would be produced in Europe in 2025 using chemical recycling. However, according to research by the ARD magazine programme „Panorama“ (NDR), this target will be missed by a long way. In 2024, it was therefore less than 100,000 tonnes. A significant increase is not possible this year either.
Many announced projects for chemical recycling have not yet been realised. Only a few plants are in operation worldwide, most of them in Europe. According to NDR, the Managing Director of Plastics Europe Deutschland, Christine Bunte, admitted that „very little plastic is still produced from chemical recycling“. The association estimates that by 2024, chemical recycling only 120,000 tonnes of raw materials recovered were used. It is also unclear what proportion of the raw materials obtained was later used for the production of new plastic. In response to an enquiry from NDR, the association stated that it assumes 70,000 tonnes „as a reliable lower limit“ that went into plastic production. It is unclear how much new plastic was actually produced from this.
Large systems difficult to realise
Large plants for chemical recycling are „very, very difficult to realise - so difficult that we haven't managed it yet,“ NDR quotes Kerstin Kuchta from the TU Harburg. She has been working on these processes for decades. The waste to be decomposed in the reactors is often moist, dirty and contains a wide variety of substances. The chemical processes are therefore never completely identical.
The proportion of plastic produced in this way is therefore likely to remain low for the time being. In 2022, Plastics Europe and the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI) had described chemical recycling as „a key element in achieving greenhouse gas neutrality“ labelled.
The expansion of traditional mechanical recycling is also not progressing as quickly as planned. In 2018, the EU Commission launched a „Circular Plastics Alliance“ with the aim of, a total of ten million tonnes of recycled plastic in the EU in 2025 to use. Many companies have pledged to support this. However, according to NDR research, it is very uncertain whether the goal can still be achieved. In 2022, the mark was less than seven million tonnes. And since 2023, the demand for recycled plastic, and therefore its production, has stalled because new plastic made from crude oil is cheaper.
The production and disposal of plastics currently cause around two billion tonnes of CO2 per year worldwide. According to an OECD forecast, annual plastic consumption is set to triple by 2060. The industry has the goal of becoming climate-neutral by 2050, and is sticking to it despite the problems with the expansion of recycling, according to its own statement.
Source: NDR
