Brussels, August 10, 2026 – Chemical Recycling Europe (CRE), the association representing chemical recycling companies across Europe, welcomes the publication of the Joint Research Centre’s (JRC) report “Economic viability of chemical recycling – Current and future perspectives.” CRE and its members contributed to the study, and we appreciate the JRC’s rigorous, evidence-based approach to a topic that is central to the EU’s circular economy ambitions.
A complementary role, delivering quality where it is needed most
The report confirms what our sector has long argued: chemical recycling is not a substitute for mechanical recycling, but a complement to it. It can process plastic waste streams — contaminated, mixed, or otherwise hard-to-recycle material — that mechanical recycling cannot handle for economical, technical or regulatory reasons.
Crucially, the report also confirms that chemical recycling can deliver recyclate plastic of virgin-equivalent, food-contact-grade quality. This matters because it is precisely the segment — contact-sensitive and food-grade packaging — where the EU’s recycled content targets under the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) cannot be met through mechanical recycling alone.
We agree: costs remain higher than virgin plastics — for now
CRE agrees with the report’s finding that chemically recycled polymers currently cost more than virgin material. This is not a surprise: chemical recycling is a young, capital-intensive industry still scaling up, operating without the decades of optimization and amortized infrastructure that the petrochemical industry benefits from.
We believe this cost gap needs to be addressed through supportive, well-designed policy measures during this critical scale-up phase. The regulation will enable the industry to scale. As with other emerging industrial technologies, CRE expects the cost gap to narrow and performance to further improve over time:
- Costs will reduce as plants scale, further standardization & optimization drives down costs and further feedstock flexibility & oil quality management will improve economics;
- Yields will further improve, through technological learning and process innovation;
- Energy efficiency will increase, reducing both costs and environmental impact.
The current cost figures reflect an early-stage industry, not its long-term potential.
What needs to happen now: three policy priorities
To unlock the capacity that our members have already planned — and that is needed to deliver the volumes required under the PPWR and other upcoming legislation — CRE calls on policymakers to prioritize the following:
- Finalize and implement mass balance rules. Swiftly implementing the fuel excluded mass balance methodology is the single most urgent enabler for the sector. Without it, investment decisions cannot be finalized with confidence.
- Put in place measures that drive demand for EU-origin circular material. Have clear mechanism to ensure that the demand for circular products is met with genuine, EU-produced circular material.
- Provide clarity on enforcement. Effective, proportionate and dissuasive measures to enforce compliance with recycled content obligations are essential. Without credible enforcement, the market signal needed to justify investment in chemical recycling capacity is undermined.
Together, these three measures will unlock the capacity our members have already committed to build and our customers have committed to process — capacity that is essential to deliver the recycled material volumes required under the PPWR and other legislation, and for example the End-of-Life Vehicles Regulation.
