EU: Packaging accounts for 83.4 million tonnes. Plastic consumption is increasing

Wednesday, Dec 11, 2024

Il Sole 24 Ore

EU packaging waste rose over ten years; Italy shows high recycling rates compared to EU average.

🔗 Read the article on ilsole24ore.com

[This is an automatically generated summary, for reference only]

In the EU, packaging waste generated in 2022 amounted to 83.4 million tons, averaging 186.5 kilograms per person, which is a decrease from 2021 but an increase of 31.7 kilograms compared to ten years prior. The composition of this waste included 41% paper and cardboard, 19% plastic, 19% glass, 16% wood, and 5% metal. In 2022, the EU average was 36.1 kilograms of plastic packaging waste per person, with 14.7 kilograms recycled; over ten years, plastic packaging waste increased by 7.6 kilograms per person while recycled amounts rose by 4 kilograms. While some countries like Slovakia (60%) and Belgium (54%) show high recycling rates, Italy’s 2023 recycling rate for packaging reached 75.3%, a significant increase from around 71% in 2022.

🔗 Read the original article

Previous page Are diesel cars "dying"? - The story of a spectacular decline and how Romania fares
Next page How do you drive, Europe? In Austria, speeding can result in the confiscation of your car. In Bulgaria, it carries a potential sentence of 20 years in prison

© 2026 Pulse - Europe beyond the beat


PULSE is an initiative for cross-border collaborative journalism in Europe co-funded by the European Commission under Grant Agreement n. PO 4500158093.

PULSE is an initiative coordinated by OBCT that has been promoting intensive journalistic cross-border collaborations in Europe since 2024. Its main aim is to help strengthen the European public sphere by reporting on and telling stories from new and diverse perspectives.

At the heart of PULSE are 10 leading national news outlets (Delfi – Lithuania, Deník Referendum – Czechia, Der Standard – Austria, EfSyn – Greece, El Confidencial – Spain, Gazeta Wyborcza – Poland, HotNews – Romania, HVG – Hungary, Il Sole 24 Ore – Italy, Mediapool – Bulgaria) and three transnational organisations, including OBCT , n-ost and Voxeurop .

Additional outlets and journalists are involved as associate partners, including EUobserver , Føljeton (Denmark), H-Alter (Croatia), Levila (Estonia), Rubryka (Ukraine), and The Journal Investigates (Ireland).

PULSE is driven by a sort of virtual transnational newsroom made up of journalists from all the publications involved. It collaboratively produces new journalistic content on European issues on a daily basis, coming in many different languages. The editorial output amounts to over a thousand publications per year, mostly in article form.

PULSE also runs 4 thematic networks open to any European journalist interested in crucial issues such as EU enlargement, relations between the EU and other global powers, the EU’s green transition, or media and the information society. These networks function as online communities and periodically publish calls for pitches.