Packaging recycling in EU member states – requirements from the circular economy package

With the adoption of the circular economy package and corresponding legislative implementations, the European Union has set, among other aspects, important impulses to increase the level of packaging waste recycling in EU member states. In addition, the EU has put a particular focus on plastics. In the directive 2019/904, often referred to as single-use plastics directive, targets are proposed for the collection of single-use beverage plastic bottles and the reduction of (avoidable) plastic packaging (European Parliament, 2019). The focus of the EU on plastics is reasoned, also because of difficulties that occur in the collection, sorting and recycling processes of the materials. The implementing decision 2019/665 (European Commission, 2019), which amends the methodology for packaging recycling rate calculations in the packaging and packaging waste directive has shown that the gap for many EU member states to reach the recycling targets above is larger than anticipated. This is especially the case for plastic packaging.