The Compelling Facts About Plastics 2009

The plastics industry, represented by its associations Plastics­Europe, European Plastics Converters (EuPC), European Plastic Recyclers (EuPR) and the European Association of Plastics Recycling and Recovery (EPRO), has published an analysis on trends in European plastics production, demand, and recovery for the year 2008 called the The Compelling Facts About Plastics 2009.

According to the report, global production fell back in 2008 to 245 million t from 260 million t in 2007. Europe produced 60 million t and remained a major region contributing about 25 % of the global total.

Demand by European converters fell back 7.5 % to 48.5 million t in 2008. Increases in recycling (4.3 %) and energy recovery (3.6 %) over 2007 have driven total recovery rate for plastics to 51.3 % and disposal at landfill down to 48.7 % thereby opening up a gap of 2.6 %. Seven of the EU member states plus Norway and Switzerland recover more than 80 % of their used plastics.

These are some of the trends covered in the report. The full analysis can be downloaded free of charge or ordered in printed form at www.plasticseurope.org.