Germany hit a plastic packaging recycling rate of 68.9% in 2023, establishing a new record.
The previous year Germany mechanically recycled 67.5% of its plastic packaging waste.
The data, shared by the German Central Agency Packaging Register (ZSVR) and the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) during a press conference, reveals that Germany’s plastic recycling rate was above the legal threshold of 63%, in effect since 2022 through the German Packaging Act (VerpackG).
While plastic packaging went above and beyond the legal recycling target, both glass and carton beverage packaging missed their targets, by 6.9 and 8.7 percentage points, respectively. Nonetheless, both materials had higher recycling rates than in 2022. Paper and cardboard recycling, on the other hand, hit the legal target but rates diminished compared with 2022.
Since Germany introduced its Packaging Act in 2018, the country’s plastic packaging recycling rate has increased by almost 27 percentage points.
“It's not just the absolute recycling rate that's impressive,” said Dr. Isabell Schmidt, Managing Director for the Circular Economy at the German Association for Plastic Packaging (IK). “It's also remarkable that the legally required recycling rate of 63% was once again significantly exceeded. This development shows that it's not just about achieving statutory quota requirements, but that there is an established market for plastic recyclates from packaging. This is a real quantum leap for the circular economy,” she added.
IK said the packaging sector has done great progress in design for recycling. According to the association, four out of five plastic consumer packaging items are already ‘highly recyclable and can replace new plastics after recycling’.
Although 2023 saw a decrease in total plastic packaging volume in Germany, the demand for recyclates in the packaging market is increasing, IK said in a statement.
“Our industry did its homework early on,” Schmidt said. “80% of the plastics recycled in Germany already come from the packaging sector. Other industries such as construction and automotive must now follow suit if they want to use recyclates on a large scale. This is because the industry will claim the packaging recyclates for itself in the future.”
Despite the positive trend in plastics packaging recycling, challenges remain. ZSVR said incorrect pre-sorting and waste separating remains the biggest barrier to higher recycling rates. According to the agency, 20% to 40% of residual waste still ends up in containers destined for plastic waste. Consumers also dispose of a lot of easily recyclable packaging in the residual waste container.
Composite packaging remains a serious concern. The quota for this kind of packaging was missed again in 2023, with a shortfall 7.9 percentage points higher than the previous year. The ZSVR said producer responsibility is not yet adequately implemented for composite packaging and that not enough effort is being dedicated to creating the required recycling capacity.
Germany is doing better than its European peers for plastic packaging recycling. Overall, recycling from all packaging streams at the private household level already saves around 2 million tons of CO2 per year, and by 2030 this figure could increase to 2.55 million tons, according to a 2022 study by the Öko-Institut.