2023-10-20 18:29:33
Compressed packaging boxes in a supermarket, in Saint-Philbert-sur-Risle (Eure), May 30, 2019. JOEL SAGET/AFP
Single-use cups at coffee breaks, packages for online purchases, water bottles… Europeans have never produced so much packaging waste. In 2021, the European Union generated 188.7 kg per inhabitant, or 10.8 kg more per person compared to 2020, according to a report published Thursday October 19 by Eurostat. This is the largest increase in ten years and almost 32 kg more than in 2011, recalls the European Statistical Office. The publication of this data comes as the battle rages in the European Parliament before the vote, Tuesday October 24, in the Environment Committee, on the packaging regulation.
In total, Europeans produced 84 million tonnes of packaging waste in 2021. Large differences appear depending on the country. The Croats are the most sober, with 73.8 kg per capita, and the Irish, the biggest producers, with 246.1 kg per head. The French are above average (nearly 200 kg).
If we look this time at the breakdown by material, paper and cardboard come well ahead, with 40.3% of the total volume of waste produced in Europe. Plastic, although the lightest packaging, comes in second position (19%), just ahead of glass (18.5%), which is much heavier. This is followed by wood (17.1%) and metal (4.9%).
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Is this the effect of a disenchantment with plastic? Eurostat explains that the record increase between 2020 and 2021 (+ 6%) is “mainly due” to that of wooden packaging. The volume represented by crates, crates, boxes, hampers and other boxes increased by 19%. Cardboard and paper, increasingly used to replace plastic in food, increased by 3.9%.
“High ambition”
Plastic, which is the subject of international negotiations to reach a treaty aimed at limiting the pollution it generates, also increased by 3.9%, an increase of 1.4 kg per inhabitant. Thus, in 2021, each European generated on average 35.9 kg of plastic packaging. A figure which has jumped 26.7% in ten years, which corresponds to an increase of 7.6 kg per inhabitant. At the same time, the quantity of recycled plastic packaging jumped by 38.1% (+ 3.9 kg per capita).
In terms of recycling, performance also varies greatly from one country to another. Slovenia is the state that recycles the most, with a rate of 50%, ahead of Belgium (49.2%) and the Netherlands (48.9%). With 23%, France is one of the very poor performers. Only Denmark (22.9%) and Malta (20.5%) do less well. Paris, which nevertheless defends a text of “high ambition” to put an end to plastic pollution by 2040 as part of the negotiations on an international treaty concerning plastics, is thus very far from the objective assigned by the EU: to achieve at least 50% of plastics recycled in 2025 .
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