The European plastic recycling market continues to struggle, as recycled polymer demand remains weak with no signs of improvement. The recent package announced by the European Commission on 23 December, aimed at accelerating the EU’s transition to a circular plastics economy, marks an important first step toward strengthening plastic recycling in Europe.

As part of this package, the Commission introduced an implementing act to create EU-wide end-of-waste criteria for plastics under the Waste Framework Directive. This act builds on the Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) report, published in 2024, which provided technical proposals for harmonized end-of waste criteria for plastic waste.

Recycling Europe welcomes this long-awaited proposal, which is essential to enabling a strong single market for recyclates. By establishing EU-wide standards, it will remove trade barriers between Member States, simplify administrative procedures for recyclers, and strengthen trust in recycled materials, an essential condition for the effective reintroduction of high-quality recycled plastics into new products.

Furthermore, the introduction of new restrictions on plastic waste exports from November 2026 will significantly increase the amount of plastic waste to be recycled within the EU, making the establishment of a well-functioning internal market for recycled plastics more urgent than ever. This is also crucial for ensuring the competitiveness of EU recyclers in the global market.

In this paper, Recycling Europe offers recommendations to strengthen the Commission’s proposal on end of-waste criteria for plastics and outlines future steps to unlock the full potential of the Single Market for recycled materials.