PETrecycling CZ is non-commercial, independent, free & unsponsored Czech web portal for funs, communities, administrative, law-makers, politicians, PET plastic industry etc. in the Czech Republic.

My closing statement read: "There is only one real effective and incentive method to encourage environmentally sound collecting of beverage one-way containers and it is deposit in combination with High-Tech R&D resulted Reverse Vending Machines!

EU 2007: Plastics recovery up to 50 percent

The PETrecycling.cz assessment based on R&D up-to-day results is, that it should be made clear, that all beverage containers, e.g. PET bottles, ALU cans and glass bottles, that are commercially imported into Czech Republic or sold here should be included in return systems with deposits - to encourage the consumers to take the bottles back

The plastics industry – comprising PlasticsEurope, EuPC, EuPR and EPRO – has published its 18th report on trends in production, demand and recovery of plastics called the “Compelling Facts about Plastics 2007”. The report can be downloaded in pdf format or ordered in printed form from the partners in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish and Polish.

In 2007 recovery of plastics in the 27 EU Member States plus Norway and Switzerland (EU27 + NO/CH) reached 50 percent - up 1 percent on 2006 – mainly due to strong growth in recycling. This was achieved in a year with good growth in demand - 3 percent - to a total of 52.5 million tonnes across EU27+NO/CH, again exceeding GDP growth.

9 countries (representing 29 percent of the population in EU27+NO/CH) recovered more than 80 percent of their used plastics and are near to realising their diversion from landfill vision.

The key observations for 2007 are:

• Demand in EU27+NO/CH grew by 3 percent over 2006, exceeding GDP to reach 52.5 million tonnes (up from 51.0 million tonnes in 2006). Globally demand grew to 260 million tonnes, up from 245 million tonnes in 2006.

• Half of all post-consumer plastics ending up as waste were recovered either as recycling or as energy recovery. Recycling rates increased to 20.4 percent and energy recovery rates remained stable at 29.2 percent.

• Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Belgium, Austria, the Netherlands and – for the first time - Norway now recover more than 80 percent of their waste. They are all near to realising complete diversion from landfill. Progress, however, remains slow amongst countries with lower recovery rates. Half of the EU Member States still recover less than 30 percent. This reflects the slow political decision process and the long lead times for energy recovery options. It is proven that good performance on energy recovery is not contradictory to good performance on recycling.