The report – Plastics -The Facts 2012 – showed a 34% recycling rate, 35% energy recovery rate and 31% landfill figure.
It found 69.2% of all plastic packaging waste was recovered in 2012, the balance going to landfills and incineration without energy recovery.
The recycling rate for plastic packaging rose from 33.6% in 2011 to 34.7% in 2012.
The European Association of Plastics Recycling and Recovery Organisations (EPRO) said this shows that national recycling schemes in Europe are working, with regulations based on the EU directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste (94/62/EU).
Excluding Malta, all the EU 27+2 countries in 2012 exceeded the EU minimum targets of 22.5% recycling. 19 countries recycled more than 30% – Netherlands ranked on the top with a recycling rate of 50.6% followed by Czech Republic, Slovakia, Sweden, and Estonia.
Energy recovery results however showed differences in Europe. Nine countries recovered more than 50% of their plastic packaging waste in 2012 and obtained all a total recovery rate above 90%.
However, a couple of countries still do not recover any plastic waste.
Seven countries landfilled more than 50% of their plastic packaging waste, among them UK with 63%, according to the report.
Households generate 63% of the post-consumer plastic packaging waste in the EU, the remaining 37% comes from industry.
