Brussels -- "The amount of packaging being put on the market has been increasing much more slowly than growth in GDP and other indicators". And "the amount of used packaging sent for final disposal is declining rapidly, as recovery rates – and particularly recycling rates – continue to increase". These are the key findings of an new report by the European Organization for Packaging and the Environment (EUROPEN) titled "Packaging and Packaging Waste Statistics in Europe: 1998-2008. An analysis of official EU data".

Figures show that packaging production and packaging waste disposal have clearly been decoupled from economic growth in EU-15. Despite a 48 percent increase in GDP between 1998 and 2008, an ageing population and a trend throughout Europe toward smaller households, all of which lead to the purchase of a greater number of packaged goods, the amount of non-wood packaging placed on the market rose by only 10 percent and the amount of non-wood packaging waste disposed of actually fell by 43 percent. In EU-27 just over 17 million tonnes of packaging were sent for final disposal in 2008. To put this into context, it is estimated that 89 million tonnes of food are currently wasted in EU-27. Overall, 2,626 million tonnes of waste were generated in EU-27 in 2008.

The consumption trends for the key packaging materials show that the per capita consumption of glass packaging fell by 7 percent and the demand for metal packaging was very stable, whereas per capita consumption of plastic packaging grew by 27 percent and that of paper and board packaging by 7 percent.

Progress against the EU recycling target is illustrated by the fact that all twelve Member States required to meet the EU’s second-stage recycling target in 2008 did so. Also, three of the Member States whose deadlines are 2011 or later had already exceeded the target by 2008.

The collapse in secondary material prices in the last quarter of 2008 led to a reduction in recycling rates in that year and perhaps beyond, but whatever the effect of these unprecedented market disruptions, there is no doubt that the experience of the last decade shows that the packaging waste management models adopted in Europe are broadly successful.

The full report can be downloaded from europen.be.

Quelle: European Organization for Packaging and the Environment (EUROPEN)

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