The European collection rate for post-sorted PET bottles increased 9.4% to 1.59 million mt in 2011, according to figures released Friday by two leading industry associations.
The overall collection rate was a record 51% of all PET bottles in the market, said a report jointly published by PET Container Recycling Europe (Petcore) and the European Plastics Recyclers (EuPR).
More than 50% of the resulting recycled PET, or rPET, was used to produce containers or sheet for new packing applications in 2011, said the report, while the share of rPET used to produces fibers remained at 39%. The strapping market for rPET increased slightly to just over 100,000 mt. Net exports of PET bales to Asia also fell for the third year running.
All but three of the surveyed countries had a collection rate above the 22.5% target rate for plastic recovery set by the Packaging Waste Directive and collection rates of over 70% were recorded by around a third of countries surveyed.
The total mechanical reclamation capacity in the EU27+4 is estimated at around 1.9 million mt, so PET recyclers have capacity to absorb further large increases in PET collection, the report said.
"Capacity utilization of our recycle plants is only 77% at present," said the chairman of the EuPR PET Working Group Casper van den Dungen. "This provides the challenge for municipalities, other collectors and industry to increase the current collection rate even further to load the recycling facilities already in place."
"Sustainable, long life uses are being developed to utilize the growing supply of recycled PET."
