A new report from AMI Consulting published in June 2021 presents a comprehensive analysis of the state of play and future outlook for the recycling of flexible polyolefin films in Europe. It analyses the industry’s operating environment, and the particular challenges involved in the collection, sorting and recycling of flexible films.

In preparing the report, AMI’s comprehensive and detailed in-house data on virgin polymer demand, polymer end use applications, and recycling capacities was combined with an extensive research programme including conversations with a wide range of industry participants.

The quantitative analysis includes a focus on volumes of post-use flexible polyolefin films generated as waste by end use sector and, considering collection rates, levels of contamination and international trade in post-use plastics, an assessment of the volumes of post-use films available to EU+3 recyclers as inputs into the recycling extrusion process. The latter data point is of particular importance given it marks the new calculation point for the EU’s recycling targets. Data is provided for the years 2019, 2020 and 2021, with forecasts for 2025 and 2030.