According to Plastics Recyclers Europe (PRE, Brussels / Belgium; www.plasticsrecyclers.eu), the average yield from PET recyclers has decreased from 73% to 68% since 2011. This five percentage decrease has led to additional costs for European PET recyclers and they are discarding more material in order to achieve good quality recycled PET.

The constant decrease in the yield of PET bales processed by recyclers is due to numerous factors, says PRE. With the aim to produce lighter packaging, bottles are getting thinner and this has an impact on the higher moisture content in bales, with thinner flakes being more likely to get discarded during the recycling process. The market for non-bottle PET products (estimated to be around 18%) has grown and is forecast to grow in the coming years. So far, collection systems have not adapted to changes in the waste stream of PET – products like opaque PET bottles and trays are entering coloured PET bales. These two products represent 20% of coloured PET bale content in France.

Casper van den Dungen, PRE vice president and PET working group chairman, says, "[Extended Producer Responsibility] EPR schemes must urgently upgrade their sorting requirements to safeguard the proven quality of recycled PET from bottle stream and strongly support the developing of new dedicated streams for opaque PET bottles and PET trays."