The 8% decrease in plastic production on the continent last year can be explained by the increase in imports of cheaper plastics, particularly produced in Asia with “less strict environmental standards”, points out the organization Plastics Europe this Monday November 18.
Good news can hide bad news. In 2023, Europe produced less virgin plastics than in 2022, reports the Plastics Europe organization in a press release published this Monday, November 18. Last year, the 27 countries of the European Union, the United Kingdom, Norway and Switzerland combined produced 54 million tonnes of virgin plastics, representing an 8.3% decrease compared to the year before. This is also the first time that the continent has produced less recycled plastic than the year before, -7.8% less than in 2022.
“These figures contrast with global plastic production, which for its part increased by 3.4% last year”underlined the professional organization, which brings together around a hundred companies producing more than 90% of all polymers in Europe. It also specifies that Europe’s share of the global plastic production market fell over the period, reaching 12%, compared to 14% in 2022.
At first glance, this trend may seem like good news. But it is explained by “the sudden increase in imports” plastic resins much cheaper than in Europe, “coming from regions where environmental standards are less strict”like in Asia. The continent also imports from the United States, where the price of energy is much lower.
“Europe became for the first time a net importer of plastic resins by volume in 2022 and of finished plastic products from 2021”synthesizes the text.
European industry “threatened”
Because at the same time, exports of European plastic resins fell by 25.4%, between 2020 and 2023. “This shift threatens viability” of the plastics industry, which today employs “more than 1.5 million people in 51,700 companies”adds Plastics Europe, while the industry generated more than 365 billion euros in turnover in the EU in 2023.
Europe nevertheless remains the region of the world where the share of “circular” plastics, that is to say recycled or biosourced, is the highest, with 14.8% of local production. A few days before the opening of UN negotiations in Busan, South Korea, to conclude an international treaty on the elimination of plastic pollution, Plastics Europe believes that “the erosion of European competitiveness threatens our industry’s transition towards circularity”.
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