Plastics have become one of the most prolific materials on the planet: in 2015 we produced about 380 million tonnes of plastics globally, up from 2 million tonnes in the 1950s. Yet today only 15% of this plastic waste is collected and recycled into secondary plastics globally each year. This ...

This project examines the market for recycled plastic, with a primary focus on post-consumer plastic waste because this is considered to be the more problematic. The market for plastic waste generated in manufacturing and production is relatively strong and well-functioning; As a consequence, the majority of plastic waste from manufacturing and production is recycled. Post-consumer waste is much less homogenous: it comes from a wide variety of sources, and contains a wide variety of plastics and tends to be difficult to collect, sort, and recycle. This project identifies barriers to further utilisation of recycled plastics, and analyses a collection of policy tools that could be used to support and expand that market.

This book shows the true and often-underestimated market potential of plastics recycling, with analysis from economic, ecological, and technical perspectives. It is aimed at both technical and non-technical readers, including decision makers in material suppliers, plastic product manufacturers, governmental agencies, educators, and anyone with a general interest in plastics recycling. An overview of waste handling systems with a focus on the U.S. market is provided. Different methods of waste handling are compared from both economic and ecological perspectives. Since plastic waste recycling is essential from an ecological point of view, common strategies and new approaches to both increase the recycling rate and improve recycling economically and technically are presented. This includes processing and material properties of recycled plastics. Finally, a worldwide outlook of plastic recycling is provided with analysis of additional worldwide markets, encompassing highly developed, fast-developing, and less developed countries. This revised and expanded second edition also contains a new section on fiber-reinforced plastics and considerations for recycling them as well as numerous updates on the data and the context analyzed throughout the book. The spreadsheets used in the economic analyses are also offered as a bonus for the reader to download from plus.hanser-fachbuch.de/en. True to the authors’ mission, this book is printed on recycled paper.

This policy brief outlines the main findings from the project Plastic Waste Markets: Overcoming barriers to better resource utilisation. The aim of the project is to provide an overview of the key barriers to a stronger and more robust market for recycled plastics, and to suggest potential initiatives that could be used to overcome these barriers and strengthen the market. The project is part of the market challenges to the Nordic Prime Ministers’ green growth initiative, The Nordic Region – leading in green growth.

While plastics are extremely useful materials for modern society, plastics production and waste generation continue to increase with worsening environmental impacts despite international, national and local policy responses, as well as industry commitments. The first of two reports, this Outlook intends to inform and support policy efforts to combat plastic leakage.

Markets for many classes of recyclable materials are growing, but market failures and barriers are constraining some markets. This report presents the case for the use of 'industrial' policies which address such market failures and barriers.

Achieving a high quality of waste plastic materials and recycling processes is a key challenge in closing the resource loops for plastics. This report reviews the status and trends for plastic waste flows and treatment in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Furthermore, it gives an overview of existing policy instruments and the main challenges for designing policy instruments for improved recycling of plastic waste in these Nordic countries. The report identifies potential market failures associated with closing the resource loops for plastics. It reviews the economics research literature on policy instrument design for achieving optimal recycling rates and makes policy recommendations from the Nordic perspective. Finally, it presents results from a survey on market conditions to managers in the recycling and plastic manufacturing industry in Sweden.