Bulgaria among EU leaders in recycling plastic packaging – Eurostat

Bulgaria ranked fourth among EU member states in recycling plastic packaging waste in 2016, at 52.6 per cent, nearly ten percentage points above the average of 42 per cent in the EU as a whole, the bloc’s statistics body Eurostat said on November 29.

It was one of only eight member states to surpass the 50 per cent mark, but the Eurostat data also showed that the recycling rate in Bulgaria was down for a second year running, having recorded 64.1 per cent in 2014 and 60.8 per cent in 2015.

Bulgaria also showed improvement in recycling glass packaging, to 69.8 per cent from 62.9 per cent in 2015, and paper and cardboard packaging, to 80.1 per cent from 78.7 per cent.

But in both of those categories, Bulgaria ranked below the EU average, which was 73.8 per cent and 84.8 per cent, respectively.

As regards recycling of metal packaging, Bulgaria was one of EU’s laggards, ranking third last with a rate of 59.4 per cent (down from 69.2 per cent in 2015), compared to the EU average of 78.3 per cent.

Overall, Bulgaria recycled 63.8 per cent all packaging waste in 2016, down from 64.1 per cent a year earlier, compared to 67 per cent in the EU as whole.

(Photo: Clive Leviev-Sawyer)

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