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See all EU institutions and bodiesIn Europe, the average price of plastic scrap reached its highest value in 2022, at 467 Euros/tonne. Possible driving forces may be linked to the recent focus of EU policy making on recycled content requirements.
As the figure shows, the average price of plastic scrap was 334 EUR/tonne back in 2012, while the lowest value was reached in 2020 (247 EUR/tonne) before increasing in 2021 and 2022, reaching the highest value in 2022, at 467 Euros/tonne. Possible driving forces for the changes in the past few years may be linked, among others, to a combination of the consequences of the Chinese ban that started in 2018, to the pandemic starting in 2020, the amendments in the Basel Convention in 2020 and to a conjectured increase in quality of traded plastic scrap. The recent focus of EU policy making on recycled content requirements (SUP Directive, Construction Products Regulation, Eco-design for Sustainable Products Regulation) might also have stimulated demand for recycled plastics, which would influence their price.Looking at ethylene, which features the largest traded quantities among plastic scrap, the average value of “virgin” and waste plastics exported intra- and extra-EU27 show similar trends in 2020-2022 (according to monthly data on quantities and values from Eurostat trade data). As a result, the trends do not seem to be specific for waste but for plastic materials in general.