3.
VALIPAC
3.1. Results of mapping in 2024
The annual mapping report systematically documents recycling channels, from collectors and traders to final recyclers. In total, the route taken by 66,365 tonnes of industrial and commercial plastic packaging waste was fully mapped in 2024 for the 2023 operating year. This plastic packaging waste was recycled in Europe, the Far East or the Middle East (mainly Turkey). The total quantity recorded increased compared with the mapping reports in 2021 (+9,800 tonnes), 2022 (+3,100 tonnes) and 2023 (+1,756 tonnes). The decrease in the amount of recycled industrial plastic packaging in Europe in 2023 compared with 2022 is largely due to rising energy costs.
Combined with the quantity of waste (29.5%) going directly to final processors, trading efforts in 2024 take overall traceability of plastic waste for 2023 to more than 98.7%.
In 2023, 52.6% of recycled cardboard went directly to a final purchaser, and 40.3% was sold by operators or traders with whom Valipac has a contract. The accredited compliance organisation ended 2023 with seven contracts with cardboard traders. This meant that Valipac achieved a traceability level of 97.8% for 2023, and its efforts in this area continue unabated.
3.2. Audit results
Since 2021 the accredited compliance organisation has been arranging audits of recycling companies located outside the EU. This concerns both plastic and paper/cardboard.
In 2024 Valipac commissioned 46 audits of companies recycling industrial and commercial plastic waste, thanks to contracts with
19 plastic traders. This took the total number of non-EU companies already audited to 126 (including 32 two-yearly re-audits or unannounced audits of previously audited purchasers). The substantial budget allocated by Valipac for this purpose and requests for cooperation from other European EPR organisations have so far resulted in formal collaboration with EPR organisations for packaging in the Netherlands, Iceland, Ireland and Luxembourg.
In its 2023 results, Valipac takes into account the quantities of plastic that recycling companies outside the EU have accepted, but that cannot be included in the recycling results because of minimum criteria and an adverse audit report.
The number of “red-flagged” companies (i.e. those with an adverse audit opinion) for plastic was nine by the end of 2024 (two more than the previous year). Valipac disseminates this “blacklist” to traders to make them aware of the problem and encourage them to remedy the situation. Waste operators can log on to a web application and check scores to encourage them to exclude purchasers who trade with “blacklisted” companies. This also enables operators to guarantee maximum recycling incentives for unpackers.
3.3. Overview of
final recycling destinations
The various materials had the following destinations in 2023:
