EU plans stricter controls on plastic imports to help struggling recyclers

The European Union will introduce stricter rules for imports of plastics, the European Commission said on Tuesday, as it attempts to help European recycling plants that are struggling to compete with cheaper imports.

Europe's plastics-recycling industry has lost more capacity in 2025 than in any previous year, with low-cost plastic imports and high energy costs driving plant closures in countries including the Netherlands, according to industry group Plastics Recyclers Europe.

A particular concern is that cheap virgin plastic - new material made from raw fossil fuels, rather than recycled plastic made from used materials - is being mislabelled as recycled, putting local recyclers at a disadvantage as their recycled plastic cannot compete on price.

The European Commission, the EU executive body, said it would propose legal changes in the first half of 2026 to require stricter documentation for imports of recycled plastics. Another proposal will create separate customs codes for recycled and virgin plastics, to make it easier to track imports.

"The recycling sector is facing high energy costs, low and unpredictable prices for virgin plastic (linked to oil prices) and competition from imports of cheap plastics (often virgin plastics wrongly claimed to be recycled)," the Commission said in a document setting out the plans.

Other measures will include EU audits of recycling plants, including outside of Europe, and support for laboratories to run control checks on whether shipments of recycled plastic are genuine.

Brussels will also consider whether it is necessary to introduce trade measures. An EU import surveillance task force will monitor plastics imports during 2026, the Commission said.

The EU has already imposed anti-dumping duties on Chinese PET plastic - the type used to make bottles - to address imports which Brussels said were so cheap they forced EU companies to sell at a loss to compete.

Six European countries, including France, Spain and the Netherlands, asked the EU last month to take further action against imports of low-quality recycled plastics which they said were being sold at heavily discounted prices.

The EU also proposed rules specifying how chemically recycled products can count towards EU requirements for products to include recycled materials.