Don’t trash European recycling
European farmers are far from alone in feeling bitterly angry about the threat from low-cost, unfair competition and pricing which risks destroying their livelihoods.
Europe’s packaging recycling industry faces a similar existential challenge.
We are not burning tires or dumping piles of steaming manure at the seat of our legislatures but we share the farming fraternity’s frustration when European lawmakers show signs of forgetting whose side they are supposed to be on.
In our case, the threat to the viability of our industry is all too real, the result of unfair competition from Asia.
Europe’s recycling rates of plastic packaging waste historically has been around 35 percent[1], but hasn’t made significant progress beyond easier-to-recycle clear bottle waste streams.
