Europe had a PET recycling capacity of 2.1m t in 78 recycling facilities in 2017. Of the installed capacity in Europe, four countries account for 65% of the PET recycling market – Germany (27%), France (15%), Italy (14%) and Spain (9%). Around 1.9m t of PET were processed into 1.4m t of recyclate, which were used to manufacture new products. The data is from a recent study done by Plastics Recyclers Europe (PRE, Brussels / Belgium; www.plasticsrecyclers.eu), which reviewed the European recycling industry's installed capacities.

According to PRE's data, around 200,000 t of PET capacity remains unused. Caspar van den Dungen, PRE vice president and chairman of the PET working group, says there there is "much room for growth." Currently, the recycling rate of PET bottles in Europe is 57%. Good-quality input material for processing is currently a struggle to find, says van den Dungen, and PET collection has to be improved on a quantitative and qualitative level.