What EU country boasts the highest plastic packaging recycling rate?

Slovakia boasts the highest recycling rate for plastic packaging in the European Union, with 60% of plastic packaging recycled in 2022, new data from Eurostat has shown.

Other countries to report significantly high rates of plastic packaging include Belgium (54%), Germany (51%) and Slovenia (51%), the data showed.

At the other end of the spectrum, Malta reported the lowest plastic packaging recycling rate in 2022, with just 16% of plastic recycled, followed by Denmark (23%), France (25%) and Austria (25%).

At a European level, the bloc recycled 41% of all generated plastic packaging waste in 2022, a slight increase on ten years previously, in 2012, when the rate stood at 38%.

Packaging waste in the EU

In 2022, the European Union produced 83.4 million tonnes of packaging waste, averaging 186.5 kg per person, Eurostat’s data showed.

This figure marked a slight decrease of 3.6 kg per inhabitant compared to 2021, but an increase of 31.7 kg since 2012.

Among the materials used, paper and cardboard were the most common, accounting for 41% of the total waste. Plastic and glass each represented 19%, followed by wood at 16% and metal at 5%.

On a per capita basis, some 36.1 kg of plastic packaging was generated per person in the EU in 2022. Of this, 14.7 kg was recycled, resulting in a recycling rate of 41%.

Over the decade, from 2012 to 2022, the amount of plastic packaging waste generated per person increased by 7.6 kg, while the amount recycled rose by 4.0 kg per capita. Read more here.

Recycling level of packaging waste by EU country, 2022 (tonnes)