Plastics value chain makes strategic recommendations to fight market recession in Europe
The European plastics value chain, including the UK, is at a breaking point says trade association European Plastics Converters.
A deep competitiveness crisis is suffocating the industry, according to the association, with serious consequences already materialising across the sector.
By the end of 2025, the region is expected to have lost recycling plants, amounting to almost 1Mt of recycling capacity. But the impact goes beyond recycling.
In 2023, European plastics production dropped by 8.3%, while the global market share has shrunk from 22% in 2006 to 12%. This is not only a threat to the competitiveness of Europe’s industry, but also its ability to meet circular economy and climate goals.
In response, 28 leading actors across the European plastics value chain have signed a joint letter addressed to EU policymakers. They put forward six strategic recommendations to support the industry, including reducing low-priced imports, soaring energy costs, legal uncertainty, administrative burdens and regulatory fragmentation.
They say demand of the value chain for circular plastics should be based on eco-modulated EPR fees that reward recyclability and the use of recycled content.
EPR schemes must address market failures and follow consistent rules.
The sector urges solutions to economic pressures that hamper its competitiveness, including access to affordable energy, as well as the effective implementation and enforcement of EU legislation across Member States.
Adding, that if urgent strategic action is not taken, the ongoing recession will further slash the production of plastics in the territory and the demand for these plastics and products, triggering an even higher number of bankruptcies and closures.
Decades of investments in innovation and plastics circularity risk being lost, along with thousands of green jobs, threatening the European Union's environmental goals.
