Positive developments: A look at "Plastics - The Facts 2022"

Plastics have been an indispensable material all over the world for many decades. This is true in the packaging industry (especially where water and air tightness as well as hygiene are important) as well as in medicine and various technical applications - for example, when electrical currents have to be insulated.

However, the vast majority of traditional plastics have a real problem: they are based on petroleum and are produced by chemical conversion, in some cases using a great deal of energy. At a time when sustainability to protect the environment and climate is the top priority, the plastics industry is therefore currently undergoing a process of self-reflection and reorientation.

There is no question that plastics offer no alternative in many areas. However, it is precisely for this reason that new approaches must be taken to ensure that plastics production does not continue to be detrimental to the biosphere - at least not to the same extent as in the past. An important contribution to this is made by measures that ensure a genuine closed loop, as has existed for many years in metal production, for example.

Demand, capacity, status of the circular economy: These and other facts are the subject of the annual report "Plastics - The Facts". Since the 2022 edition was recently published, we have reviewed and evaluated its 81 pages and extracted and prepared the most relevant information for you.

What is "Plastics - The Facts" and who is creating it?

"Plastics - The Facts" is a comprehensive analysis of global and especially European plastics manufacturing and development. The report provides data and facts on

Production
Demand
Processes of change
the topic of waste and sustainability as well as
sales and other economic data.

Valid in each case for the previous year. This means that Plastics - The Facts 2022 looks (mainly) at the year 2021 and compares it with previous years. The focus of this work, which has been published annually since the 2000s, is on Europe. However, Plastics - The Facts also provides insights into the topic of global plastics.

This gives the report volume the character of a comprehensive analysis of the plastics industry in one year. Although it is also a study on sustainable packaging, it is much more than that. It is important not only as an insight for the industry itself, but also as an important information medium for all those who rely on plastics for their products and processes or who work with this industry - and, last but not least, for political decision-makers.

Of central importance for the accuracy of the data and thus the credibility of the entire study is its origin: Plastics - The Facts is traditionally compiled and published by "Plastics Europe". This is the pan-European association of plastics producers. More precisely, it is an umbrella organization for plastics manufacturers in the respective countries.

Stated goal:

"The European plastics industry wants to continue making a significant contribution to prosperity in the future. Our goal is to improve the quality of life with innovations, use resources efficiently and protect the climate. As a material, plastics are essential for sustainable living and for achieving climate protection targets. Whether wind turbines, energy-saving houses or e-mobility: efficient plastics make it possible to save resources and_CO2 . Currently, more than 1.5 million people work in the plastics industry across the EU in around 55,000 companies."

For these reasons, Plastics - The Facts has become the most important contemporary report on the as-is, to-be and to-be state of the pan-European plastics industry and its products - and, incidentally, the course that this so indispensable industry will steer in the years to come.

The 2022 report volume, which, as mentioned, primarily looks at the year 2021, actually represents a novelty in this regard - for two reasons:

For the first time, only plastics that were explicitly used for the manufacture of plastic parts, packagingand other (end) products were evaluated for the plastics production data. Polymers that were only used as intermediates in the chemical industry or for the production of cosmetics, paints or adhesives were excluded from the figures.
For the first time, data for post-consumer recycled plastics and bioplastics were integrated into the overall calculation. The latter are plastics that are not based on fossil raw materials but on biological, sustainable materials.

Post-Consumer Recycled Plastics (PCR) are all plastics that have been recycled in a professional closed-loop system after an end-consumer use and transformed into new plastic products in this process.

Data on plastics worldwide

As already mentioned, the central focus of Plastics - The Facts is on plastics in the European region. However, plastics are used worldwide, and the issue of globalization plays a role here. Accordingly, parts of the report also take a look at the current status in countries outside Europe.

Key facts from this chapter:

2021 marked the year when global plastics production gradually recovered from the disruptions of the worst phases of the pandemic.
A total of 390.7
Megatons (Mt) Plastics were produced. By way of comparison, this corresponds to around 8,233 examples of the "Titanic" (which displaced or weighed around 47,454 metric tons).
However, the annual production in 2021 again meant an increase compared to previous years: in 2020 it was 375.5 Mt, in 2019 it was 374.8 Mt, and in 2018 it was only 365.5 Mt.
Once again, traditional, i.e. fossil-based (= petroleum) plastics accounted for by far the largest share, namely 352.3 Mt.
However, an increase in alternative plastics is also interesting: 32.5 Mt of new plastics were produced from previously recycled used plastics in 2021 (2020: 31.6 Mt). At 5.9 Mt, bio-based plastics also set a new record (2020: 3.9 Mt). This corresponds to 8.3 and 1.5 percent of total plastic production, respectively - and as mentioned, the trend is upward.
China was once again the most important global manufacturing nation for plastics in 2021. With 32 percent (2017: 29 percent), the country was able to further expand its market position.
The situation was different for the second- and third-placed regions: North America maintained its 2017 share at 18 percent. In Europe, on the other hand, the figure fell to 15 percent, down from 19 percent in 2017.
In addition to China, the Middle East and Africa in particular benefited. Production there increased from 7 to 8 percent. There was a similar increase in the Eastern European CIS nations: They produced 3 percent of the global market share in 2021, 1 percent more than in 2017.
Packaging manufacturers were again by far the biggest users of plastics in 2021: a full 44 percent of global production was consumed by this sector alone. By contrast, the second-placed sector, the construction industry, required only 18 percent.

In terms of the types of plastics produced, polypropylenes took first place with 19.3 percentage points. This was followed by low-density polyethylenes (PE-LD & PE-LLD) with 14.4 percent, polyvinyl chlorides (PVC) with 12.0 percent and denser polyethylenes (PE-HD & PD-MD) with 12.5 percent.

As already shown in the global overview, Europe has lost important market shares in plastics production in recent years. One striking reason for this is the particularly strong transformation toward sustainability here - as can be seen in the disproportionately high share of recycled and bioplastics compared with the rest of the world.

In total, Europe produced 57.2 megatons (Mt) of plastics in 2021.
Based on the past years, this was a good, but not an outstanding value. In 2020, only 53.9 Mt were produced, and in 2019 56.2 Mt, but in 2018 the figure was 58.1 Mt.
The share of fossil plastics in total production was 50.1 Mt, or 87.6 percent.
Evidence of the development efforts on the continent are the levels of alternative plastics: 10.1 percent, or 5.8 megatons, were post-consumer recycled plastics. 2.3 percent or 1.3 megatons were bio-plastics. In terms of percentage, both are significantly overrepresented in a global comparison - an important signal.
As far as the use of plastics is concerned, although the distribution is similar to the global picture, there is nevertheless a European distinctiveness. Although packaging manufacturers also account for the lion's share of demand here, they only account for 39.1 percent of production (44 percent globally). In addition, the construction industry also consumes more - 21.3 versus 18 percent. The packaging value in particular shows that the measures to require less "superfluous" packaging plastic in Europe are bearing fruit.

In Europe, too, polypropylenes were the most important traditional plastics produced in 2021 - with a 16.6 percent share. This was followed by low-density polyethylenes (PE-LD & PE-LLD) with 14.7 percent, PVC with 11.4 percent and denser polyethylenes (PE-HD & PE-MD) with 9.3 percent.

Interesting for the European market are also the figures on the demand of the local plastics processing industry: In 2021, this industry will need 50.3 megatons of plastics. This means that Europe will be able to cover its entire plastics requirements (at least in terms of volume) and even export a few million tons (production 57.2 Mt vs. demand 50.3 Mt).

Once again, these figures show the importance of Germany as an industrial location: German plastics processing companies accounted for almost a quarter (23.2 percent) of the total demand for plastics in Europe. In second place, Italy, the figure was only 14.3 percent.

What is there to know about the market data?

Economically, the European plastics industry is doing well. It achieved a positive trade balance of 14.4 billion euros in 2021.
In terms of production, both exports (33.2 billion euros) and imports (24.3 billion euros) increased, but the export surplus fell from 9.3 to 9 billion euros.
The situation was similar in plastics processing: exports (39.2 billion euros), imports (33.8 billion euros) represented an increase, but the falling export surplus of 5.4 billion euros followed the long-term trend.
The most important trading partners for Europe in plastics production were the USA (18.4 percent) for imports and the UK (14.5 percent) for exports.
In plastics processing, the main importing nation was China (35.8 percent), and in terms of exports, it was also Great Britain.

How is Europe's plastics industry positioned in terms of sustainability?

In short: on a very good path. This can already be seen in the figures for recycled and organic plastics. Furthermore:

In 2020, only 23 percent of all plastics were sent to landfills. 42 percent was converted into energy and a remarkable 35 percent was recycled.
The figures for plastic packaging in particular are even better: 46 percent is recycled, 37 percent is converted into electricity and only 17 percent is disposed of in landfills. This means a recycling increase of 9.5 percent since 2018. Between 2006 and 2020, the recycling rate even increased by an impressive 110 percent.
In terms of recycling rates, the Netherlands (45 percent), Norway (44 percent), Spain (43 percent) and Germany (42 percent) are the EU leaders. Bringing up the rear in terms of landfill disposal are Malta (75 percent), Greece (73 percent) and Cyprus (71 percent).

Conclusion: An outlook on the future of European plastics

Instead of a conventional conclusion, we would like to tell you on these lines what conclusions Plastics - The Facts 2022 draws for the future.

Here, concern is particularly evident due to the Ukraine war and the associated uncertainties for energy supply and logistics. The industry is therefore concerned that the good recovery from the pandemic from 2021 could be cancelled out by a future downturn. For 2022, the study therefore expects growth to decline by 4 percent.

However, the outlook for the climate and environmental balance sheet is positive: recycling is increasing everywhere in Europe, and recycled and alternative plastics are being used more and more. As a result, the local industry can definitely hope for good starting opportunities - after all, the topic is currently picking up strong speed worldwide.

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