Working for a Sustainable Plastics Industry in Europe
The European Plastics Industry Voluntary Commitments
Six associations from the European Plastics Industry have come together to adopt an ambitious framework for voluntary commitments to support a more sustainable and circular plastics economy in Europe. Our main goal is to achieve a recycling rate of 50% for all plastics waste in Europe by 2040. This will create new growth opportunities for European businesses, drive the recycling of plastic products and considerably reduce littering volumes.
Our Commitment
Together, as an overall setup of organisations that stimulate EU voluntary actions per polymer type, we wish to develop a new main European-wide action plan on several plastics waste streams to achieve:
70% recycling and reuse of plastics packaging by 2040.
50% recycling and reuse of all plastics waste by 2040.
A transformation of our industry will not happen if it does not come from the heart of this industry. Converters and recyclers are key in all aspects of change and their involvement will drive the agenda for the next decades. A sector of so many small and medium-sized companies is challenging to organise and therefore it is of major importance to drive polymer value chain collaboration. It is vital that all companies can find the guidance of the industrial leaders through specific polymer value chain initiatives. VinylPlus® and Petcore Europe can be seen as a benchmark for other polymers and our industry will continue to follow this route in order to really make a difference.
The European Plastics Industry - Key Numbers
Employees in the
Plastics Industry
Turnover in the
Plastics Industry
Companies in the
Plastics Industry
Our overall industry objective is to unite all efforts, maximise the recycling potential per polymer type and consequently set up new and/or additional ambitious EU circularity targets to ensure the future competitiveness of our plastics industry in the European Union. This activity will drive more polymer value chain collaborations towards sustainable plastic products, improve product design and contribute to efficient awareness-raising campaigns towards many small and medium-sized companies, especially in the plastics converting and recycling industry.