The global plastic recycling industry is facing an unprecedented crisis as major recycling plants across the UK and Europe continue to shut down, raising fears of increased plastic waste exports and growing dependence on virgin plastics from Asia.
In the UK, waste management giant Biffa closed its £7-million Sunderland recycling plant earlier this year, just two years after it opened. Rival company Viridor has also wound up operations at its Avonmouth and Skelmersdale facilities and recently confirmed the closure of its Rochester plant. Similar trends are unfolding across Europe—Veolia plans to close its two recycling sites in Germany, and seven facilities shut down in the Netherlands last year. At the same time, global firms such as Borealis, Dow, and Neste have abandoned plans to build new plastic recycling plants on the continent.
According to Plastic Recyclers Europe, the closure spree has cost the region nearly one million tonnes of recycling capacity since 2023. The organisation warns that without urgent policy intervention, Europe risks dismantling its recycling infrastructure and becoming dependent on imported, unsustainable plastic waste.
Industry insiders blame the closures on a combination of high operating costs, cheaper imports, and flawed regulatory frameworks. “We are at the toughest point for recycling in Europe,” said James McLeary, managing director of Biffa’s polymers division. “Either plants run at a loss or they shut down. Right now, sourcing recycled or virgin plastic from Asia is cheaper than buying it domestically.”
The UK’s reliance on exporting plastic waste has only worsened the problem. According to environmental analysts at ENDS Report, the country exported nearly 600,000 tonnes of plastic waste in 2024—up 5% from the previous year. Loopholes in existing legislation encourage exporters to ship waste abroad rather than process it domestically, while manufacturers prefer to use low-cost virgin plastic and simply pay the government’s packaging tax rather than switch to recycled material.
“This is not how a circular economy should work,” said Ahmed Detta, CEO and founder of Enviroo, a London-based plastic recycling company. “Brands find it cheaper to pay fines than to invest in recycled materials. There’s no collective alignment toward sustainability.”
Independent authority RECOUP has also raised alarm, warning that the UK could “witness the demise of plastic recycling as we know it” unless urgent action is taken. Its head of policy, Steve Morgan, argues that UK recycling regulations have ended up benefiting foreign markets more than domestic recyclers. He has urged the government to introduce a single certification scheme to reduce waste exports and boost the use of recycled packaging.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) insists that reforms are underway. A spokesperson said that the government is investing £10 billion in new sorting and processing facilities and that the upcoming Deposit Return Scheme—set to launch in October 2027—will help produce higher-quality recyclable materials by incentivising consumers to return bottles and cans.
Across the Channel, industry leaders share similar concerns. Virginia Janssens, managing director of Plastics Europe, said that the exodus of recycling investments from Europe could set the sector back by decades. “If large-scale projects move abroad, they won’t return,” she warned. “It would push us back to more incineration and landfilling, which would be a tragedy.”
Despite the grim outlook, a few bright spots remain. Biffa recently acquired bottle manufacturer Esterform, known for its use of recycled PET, while Enviroo has secured £58 million to build a new recycling facility in northwest England capable of processing 35,000 tonnes of plastic annually by 2026. London-based Plastic Energy is also expanding its operations, converting waste into pyrolysis oil that can be reused in food and medical-grade plastics.
Still, experts agree that without stronger incentives, coordinated regulation, and technological investment, Europe’s recycling capacity will continue to erode—taking with it years of progress toward sustainability and circularity.
