ENVIRONMENT: Cyprus leads the way in recycling plastic packaging

Cyprus recycles more than half of its plastic packaging putting it among the highest in Europe, latest EU data shows.

In the EU, an estimated 42% of plastic packaging waste was recycled in 2016.

In eight EU Member States, more than half of the plastic packaging waste generated was recycled.

The highest recycling share was recorded in Lithuania (74%), ahead of Cyprus (64%), Slovenia (62%), Czechia (59%), Bulgaria (53%), Slovakia and the Netherlands (both 52%) and Sweden (51%).

In contrast, less than one third of plastic packaging waste was recycled in Luxembourg (33%), Hungary and Ireland (both 31%), Malta (29%), France (26%), Finland and Estonia (both 25%).

Compared with 2005, the recycling rate of plastic packaging waste increased by 18.4 percentage points in the EU (from 24% in 2005 to 42.4% in 2016).

This trend is observed in all EU Member States with the exception of Estonia, where the recycling of plastic packaging waste decreased by 0.9pp compared with 2005.