Half of Danish plastic bottles will be recycled by 2025

A new ambitious agreement in the Danish Brewer’s Association demands that 50% of plastic bottles produced by its’ members are recycled by 2025. In total, Danish companies have committed to recycling double the amount of plastic, the EU is aiming for: 202,400 tonnes.

In 2025, the water bottles you buy in Denmark will be made from at least 50% recycled plastic. This is what the Danish breweries and bottling companies agreed to through their trade organization, the Danish Brewers’ Association. In tonnage, this will be more than 6,000 tonnage of recycled plastic.

“As an industry, we have shaken hands on increasing the amount of recycled plastic in our bottles from the current 25% to 50% by 2025 and ensuring that plastic bottles collected via the country’s bottle deposit system are used to produce new food product packaging,” says Knud Loftlund, Head of Environmental Conditions at the Brewers’ Association.

A circular economy with climate friendly initiatives on bottle depositing and production has become the greater goal for brewers and bottle manufacturers alike. This is true for the member companies of the Brewers’ Association.

“Our member companies want to take responsibility. That’s why we’re aiming high, and our long-term goal is one hundred per cent circular packaging that will be able to be recycled in new products again and again,” says Knud Loftslund.

Pushing the boundaries on climate

And not only the brewers and bottle manufacturers are ambitious about recycling plastic. Danish companies have given pledges to follow the EU Commission’s goal of increasing the amount of recycled plastics in the EU as a whole by 10 million tonnes by 2025.

Thanks to calculations by The Confederation of Danish Industri, we know that these pledges will amount to 202,400 extra tonnes of recycled plastic by 2025 – that is 2% of the EU Commission’s overall target from a country that makes up 1% of the EU population.

Source: Confederation of Danish Industry

Photo credit: Dansk Retursystem