The European Union plastic recycling sector is teetering on the edge of collapse, hit hard by a combination of economic pressures, rising imports, and surging operational costs. With plant closures doubling in 2024 and continuing into 2025, thousands of green jobs are now at risk posing a significant challenge to the EU’s green transition strategy.
Sharp Decline in Production Despite €5 Billion Investment
Between 2020 and 2023, Plastics Recyclers Europe reports that the sector attracted €5 billion in investments aimed at meeting EU sustainability targets. Yet despite this significant funding, recycling rates have started to drop. The reasons: rising production costs, soaring energy bills, and growing competition from cheap, low-quality imported plastic much of it with questionable environmental credentials.
Green Jobs in Danger Across the Sector
The crisis is impacting a wide range of professionals from waste sorters and machine operators to engineers and researchers. The setbacks threaten the very backbone of the EU’s circular economy vision and risk undermining one of its central climate goals: the creation of sustainable, future-ready employment.
EU’s Recycling Goals Slipping Out of Reach
The European recycling industry is sounding the alarm. Without immediate and decisive action particularly on enforcing existing trade and sustainability rules the EU is at risk of missing its 2025 recycling and circular economy targets. Currently over 20% of all polymers consumed in the EU are imported, either as recycled or virgin plastics. Meanwhile, domestic recycling of most polymers has shrunk by 5%.
EU policymakers to act swiftly, implement robust import controls and enforce laws banning substandard imports that don’t meet EU sustainability norms. The industry has made €5 billion in investments it cannot afford to be undercut by unregulated competition.
Unregulated Imports & Soaring Costs
In a recent statement Plastics Recyclers Europe called out the surge in imported plastics, many of which come with limited transparency around their environmental impact. These imports have undercut European recyclers, whose costs have risen due to a spike in energy prices and the cost of raw waste inputs.
Simultaneously, plastic waste exports from the EU rose by 36% in 2024 compared to 2022 a sign that recycling is being pushed out rather than expanded within Europe.
Closures Accelerate, Production Falls to 2000 Levels
Recycling facility closures are snowballing. In 2024, the total closed capacity doubled from the previous year. This trend is accelerating in 2025, threatening recycling businesses across the continent from large industrial plants to small, local recyclers.
Projections suggest that EU plastic production may soon fall back to levels last seen in the year 2000, even as polymer consumption continues to rise a growing imbalance that threatens both environmental goals and economic stability.
Circular Economy at Risk Without Protection
The recycling industry warns that unless plastic recycling is recognised as a strategic sector and shielded from unfair global competition, Europe’s circular plastics economy could unravel. Without strong trade protection and regulatory enforcement, the EU risks undermining its own goals on sustainability, self-sufficiency, and green employment.
As Europe faces a decisive moment the future of its plastic recycling industry and the broader circular economy now hinges on whether the EU can step in with the urgent political action recyclers are demanding.