Last year, the EU exported 80.3 million tons of products for recycling outside the borders of the Union, which is an increase of four percent compared to 2019, Eurostat announced.
On the other hand, imports amounted to 34.7 million tons, which is a decrease of 10 percent compared to the same year.
Of the materials for recycling, the EU exported the most paper in 2020, 60.8 million tons, almost a quarter of those exports went to India, and a fifth to Malaysia. 15.9 million tons of plastic were exported outside the EU, as well as 3.7 million tons of glass.
Malaysia was the largest destination for plastic exports, a fifth of exports went to this Asian country, 18 percent of total exports went to Turkey, and 17 percent to Great Britain. Last year, glass was mostly exported to the UK, as much as 42 percent, then to Switzerland (14 percent) and the United States (7 percent).
Eurostat data show that 22.2 million tons of paper were imported last year, accounting for more than half of all recyclable products imported from outside the EU.
Most recycling products were imported from the UK, 36 percent of total paper imports outside the EU and 41 percent of plastic and glass imports outside the EU.
Apart from Great Britain, paper was also imported from the USA and Switzerland, Norway is in the fourth place, and Serbia is in the fifth place, from which the EU imported three percent of the total import outside the EU borders in 2020.
The EU imported the most plastic from Norway and the USA, the second largest importer of glass, when it comes to countries that are not members of the EU, was Switzerland, and the third was the USA, Danas reports.
