EU adopts new recycling standards for plastic packaging

The European Committee for Standardization (CEN) has released the UNI EN 18120 series, a set of standards that define best practices for designing plastic packaging for recyclability. The standards aim to create a common framework across the EU to help manufacturers, recyclers, and public authorities align on recyclability criteria, including terminology, design principles and evaluation methods such as near‑infrared (NIR) sorting. The initiative supports the EU’s circular‑economy goals by encouraging packaging that can be more effectively re‑processed in existing recycling streams.

In parallel, Turkey continues to import large volumes of plastic waste from the EU and the UK. In 2025 it received about 503,000 tonnes, a 19 % increase over the previous year, while recycling only 200‑250,000 tonnes of the total imports. The majority of the waste is poorly managed, ending up in landfills, being burned, or discarded illegally, contributing to environmental pollution. Discrepancies in reported import figures reveal a lack of transparency that hampers policy assessment and effective waste‑management strategies.