News & Events

Follow the latest news from Petcore Europe - March 2024.

This is the first newsletter of 2024 featuring messages from our President and Executive Director, updates on the activities of our Working Groups, the latest on our Communications Campaign 2024 and social media, Thermoforms Conference 2024 in Spain, details on EU Policy and Regulatory Developments and many other interesting insights. To access the full newsletter, please click here. 

PET on the road to circularity, but disparities are creating potholes. Average EU PET beverage bottles’ recycled content rate reached 24%, yet more work is needed to achieve the 2025 EU targets. 2022 was an unprecedented year for the PET and rPET value chains, as shown in the latest report. Despite extreme uncertainty, figures show advancement in the market. However, the disparities in the collection, sorting and recycling of PET around Europe will need to be addressed to achieve the EU recycling targets in the mid and long-term. PET collection and recycling accelerated in 2022 ahead of the new EU Single-Use Plastic Directive targets. The collection rate of PET in 2022 was 60%, showing an increase from the 45% achieved in 2020. Furthermore, the sorted for recycling rate for PET beverage bottles alone was estimated to be 75%, compared to 61% in 2020.                                                                                       ­

In a recent webinar hosted by industry leaders in chemical engineering and recycling technologies, experts gathered to discuss the future of circular food packaging, focusing on sustainable innovations and regulatory challenges. The event featured insights from Perstorp's Linda Zellner and Jivan Ibrahim, PETCORE Europe's Argiris Dabanlis, and NGR Recycling's David Hehenberger.

On behalf of the entire Petcore Europe Team, we would like to thank each of you for your time and active participation in the event. This year we exceeded 330 attendees at the conference and 200 at the Gala dinner, so a warm hug from Petcore Europe side!

The European Commission promotes the following hierarchy in its packaging policies: REDUCE consumption, REUSE and RECYCLE. This supports the ultimate goal of the EU to be climate neutral by 2050. This is a goal shared by the European PET industry.

The following state of play document was developed by the Petcore Europe Reuse Working Group to show the potential that PET packaging has in terms of reuse and how reuse solutions can complement single-use recyclable packaging in a circular economy of PET in Europe. To access the full position paper, please click here. 

Since more than 15 years, the European PET Bottle Platform (EPBP) is playing a significant role in providing Design Guidelines for Recycling (DfR) and Evaluating PET bottle packaging innovative solutions and technologies on quality of recycled PET.

Follow the latest news from Petcore Europe - December 2023.

Follow the latest news from Trays Circularity Evaluation Platform.

Follow the latest news from European PET Bottle Platform.

The inclusion of opaque white PET beverage bottles in the targets set by the European Commission demonstrates the commitment of the industry towards a more sustainable future.

EPBP (European PET Bottle Platform) has now developed ‘design guidelines for recyclability for food grade opaque white PET bottles and expects that these guidelines will provide crucial support to the mechanical recycling industry for plastics in Europe. To access the full press release, please click here.