Robert Firth
OVER a third of Spain’s plastic packaging ends up in landfill, shocking new statistics have revealed.
38.2% of packaging in Spain ends up dumped in landfill, compared to just 0.1% of packaging in Germany, according to figures from research firm Statista.
The UK fares slightly better, chucking 22% of plastic packaging into landfill each year.
Other western European countries also recycle more than Spain. In France, 29% of plastic is dumped without being recycled and in Italy only 14% of plastic waste isn’t recycled.
Europe produces 20% of the world’s plastic waste, about 60 million tons of the 348 million tons of plastic the world throws away each year.
Hamburg-based Statista, who published the figures, warned that the world faces drowning in plastic if major nations don’t reduce their plastic use and increase recycling levels.
In recent years the EU has implemented measures to cut the use of single-use plastics, but Statista said that the recycling rates in different countries still varied considerably.
“The EU has implemented drastic measures to overcome current levels of ruinous waste generation… [but] better waste management and a higher recycling capacity are now more imperative than ever,” it said.
