Our Mission
Our mission is to recycle every PET plastic bottle in Europe
The time to act on waste is now. We are on a mission for every PET plastic bottle in Europe to be recycled or reused. This will close the loop on waste and realise a more sustainable future for the packaging we all rely on to keep our food and drinks fresh, healthy, and clean.
Will you join us on this mission?
So, who’s we? We’re Petcore Europe, representing the entire PET value chain in Europe, from manufacturing to recycling and other related activities. Thanks to all of our efforts, 75% of PET bottles are sorted for recycling in Europe today (ICIS, 2024). But we can and must do even better. We believe PET is the future of circular packaging. It is:
Light
Durable
Safe
Fully recyclable
That’s why it’s such a tragedy to see this resource going to waste. While PET is already the most recycled plastic packaging in Europe, we could be doing so much better.
We need your help. Whether its you as a consumer, policymaker, industry or brand, we all have a role to play in ending waste. As a consumer, you are contributing to this mission by correctly recycing your PET plastic. As a policymaker, you can promote better waste management through the implementation of Deposit Return Schemes (DRS) or separate collection schemes for PET. So, what are we as an industry doing to reduce waste?
What we’re doing to reduce waste
- We help fund collection systems across Europe to improve collection rates.
- We have increased our PET recycling capacity and continue to improve its cycle. (ICIS, 2024)
- We are improving the sustainable design of PET, such as label adhesives that dissolve in cold water, and digital watermarking for improved waste sorting. (ICIS, 2024)
What we’re doing to reduce emissions
- We are improving the design to create lighter bottles that use less material and require less fuel to transport (ICIS, 2024).
- We have increased the recycled content in our products, as recycled PET products show a drop of up to 94% in CO2 emissions compared with virgin PET. (C7, 2020)
- We are optimising our supply chain, for example using in-house production.
About Petcore
Petcore Europe is the association based in Brussels representing the complete PET value chain in Europe, from PET manufacture to conversion into packaging and recycling, and other related activities.
Visit our website for more about our structure and members.