With EU recycled content mandates approaching, the Netherlands is accelerating investment into plastics recycling pathways that extend beyond PET, where regulatory approval remains limited.
Circular Plastics Netherlands, an initiative backed by the Dutch National Growth Fund, formally launched nine recycling projects on January 15, 2026, targeting structural bottlenecks that could undermine compliance with the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation.
The PPWR requires contact-sensitive packaging to contain at least 30 percent recycled PET and 10 percent recycled content from other polymers by 2030, rising to 50 percent and 25 percent respectively by 2040. While PET recycling technologies have secured food-grade authorization from the European Food Safety Authority, equivalent approvals for recycled HDPE, polypropylene, and polystyrene remain absent. This regulatory asymmetry has become a critical constraint as brands and packaging producers prepare for legally binding targets that extend well beyond beverage bottles.
Among the nine initiatives, the RePliCa project, hosted at Morssinkhof’s Heerenveen facility in northern Netherlands, directly addresses this gap by focusing on HDPE milk bottles used for pasteurized dairy products. HDPE represents a significant share of household packaging waste, yet closed-loop, food-grade recycling at scale has remained elusive due to contamination risks and quality degradation during mechanical recycling.
RePliCa brings together Morssinkhof-Rymoplast, Sabic, Farm Dairy, Wageningen University and Research, and Kunststoffen Sorteer Installatie to operate a 10,000-ton demonstration line designed to validate cost-effective recycling routes for food-contact HDPE. The emphasis on demonstration scale reflects growing recognition that laboratory success alone will not satisfy EFSA requirements or convince brand owners to commit to long-term offtake agreements.
The broader CPNL funding package, totaling more than €18 million awarded in October 2025, supports projects led by organizations including TNO, Utrecht University, ISPT, Kunststof Recycling Van Werven, Van Dijk Containers, and the Dutch National Test Centre Circular Plastics. Collectively, the projects target sorting efficiency, polymer purification, and advanced recycling techniques that could improve material yields and consistency across mixed plastic streams.
The timing is significant. The Netherlands has committed to recycling 50 percent of all plastics by 2030 and achieving full circularity by 2050. Eurostat data shows that in 2022 the country recycled roughly 45 percent of its plastic packaging, indicating steady progress but also highlighting how marginal gains are becoming harder to secure. At the same time, economic pressures remain acute. In 2024, seven plastics recyclers declared bankruptcy in the Netherlands, underscoring the fragility of business models exposed to volatile virgin polymer prices and high energy costs.
This tension between policy ambition and industrial viability explains the growing focus on food-grade approvals. Without EFSA authorization for recycled HDPE and other polymers, compliance with PPWR targets risks becoming heavily concentrated in PET, potentially distorting markets and limiting material substitution options for food producers.
