Bulgaria Had 6th Highest Plastic Recycling Rate in EU in 2019 – Eurostat

Jerusalem, 20 October, 2022 (TPS) -- LUXEMBOURG, 20.10.2022 (BTA)
Each person living in Bulgaria in 2019 generated an average of 11.82 kg of recycled plastic packaging, compared to an average 14.03 kg for the EU, according to data published by Eurostat on Thursday. This means that 50.6% of all plastic waste in Bulgaria was recycled in 2019, compared to the EU’s 40.6%, giving Bulgaria the sixth-best plastic recycling rate among the EU Member States.

The five Member States above Bulgaria are Spain (51.5%), Slovakia (52.8%), Sweden (53.2%), the Netherlands (57.2%), and Lithuania (69.6%).

Each person living in the EU in 2020 generated an average of 34.6 kg of plastic packaging waste, of which 13.0 kg, or 37.7%, was recycled.

Between 2010 and 2020, the volume of plastic packaging waste generated per inhabitant increased by 23% or 6.5 kg. The recycled volume of plastic packaging waste increased over the same period, by 32% or 3.2 kg. Despite this improvement, the amount of plastic packaging that remained unrecycled increased by 3.4 kg per capita since 2010 due to the greater increase in the absolute amount of plastic packaging waste generated.

Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Slovakia, Spain, and Cyprus recycled more than half of their plastic packaging waste generated. In contrast, less than a third of plastic packaging waste was recycled in Malta, France, Denmark, Hungary, Ireland, Romania, Poland and Austria.