Boost in European PET bottles recycling in 2002

HOME ARCHIV 2003 10.06.2003 Boost in European PET bottle recycling in 2002
 

*************************** PETCORE´s DG Mr. Koelewijn: "I am concerned with the haste with which legislators in candidate countries scramble to impose laws just to meet EU requirements. They risk making costly mistakes. Instead, they should request fast moving consumer goods manufacturers to come up with a sound business plan for the collection of recyclable household waste such, that it meets local economic, social and cultural needs. It is so much easier to do things right in the first place, instead of having to repair a dysfunctional collection system."" ***************************

Petcore, the European association set up by the PET industry to foster recycling, has announced that in 2002 European PET bottle collection increased by more than 30% over 2001.

In total, European* sorting stations offered 449,000 tonnes of sorted and baled PET to recycling outlets. Significant growth was observed in bottle-to-bottle recycling, up 60% to an overall market share of 8.1%.

Frank Koelewijn, Petcore’s Director General, said he expects this robust growth to continue. “Europe is now the largest PET recycling region in the world; we congratulate the citizens of Europe for this huge success.”

Petcore believes that by the end of this decade recycling should hit the magic 1 million tonnes figure, although not all countries are yet doing their share.

“The introduction of a deposit in the German market has led to chaos: citizens are unable to bring their empty bottles back because return systems are virtually non-existent”, commented Koelewijn. Last year, he reports, Germany was the country with the highest growth in PET recycling. This year PETcore expects to lose 60,000 tonnes of RPET against forecasts for Germany. Other countries with high growth rates in PET recycling include Austria, the Baltic states, Belgium, France, Hungary, Poland, Spain, and Switzerland.

* European Union member states, plus Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, and all EU candidate countries.

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