When it comes to plastic recycling in the European Union, Austria stands behind «kleinezeitung.at

There is scope for improving plastic waste recycling in Austria. Only three countries in the European Union have a lower recycling rate.

2:26 PM, Oct 27, 2021

About 41 per cent of all plastic packaging waste in the EU was recycled in 2019. The same as in 2017 Austria Under the reduction of the European UnionThe recycling rate in this country is only 31 percent. It has even decreased since 2017.

Nine EU member states recycle more than half of the resulting plastic packaging waste, Lithuania ranks first with 70 percent, the European statistics agency Eurostat reported on Wednesday.

However, Malta (11%, 2018 data), France (27), Ireland (28), Austria (31) are in 24th place, and Poland (32) are at the lower end of the scale from the 27 EU countries. Topping the list are Lithuania, the Czech Republic (61%), Bulgaria (59, data from 2018), the Netherlands (57), and Sweden and Slovakia (both 53).

In 2019, average 34.4 kg of waste plastic packaging per head Produced – 14.1 kg of which was recycled. This means one Almost a quarter of the increase or 6.7 kg since 2009. However, the amount of recycling increased by 50 percent (4.7 kg) during this period. As a result, the amount of non-recycled plastic packaging has increased by two kilograms per capita since 2009.

Recycling rate at the EU level Slightly decreased compared to 2017At the time it was still 42 percent, and the rate in Austria was 33 percent.