Clarifying European terminology in plastics recycling

The increasing activities in plastics recycling have led to a sprawl of terminology describing different technologies and technology categorizations. This creates not only linguistic confusion but also makes it difficult for regulators, investors, corporate leaders and other stakeholders to fully understand the relationship between different technologies, potentially leading to suboptimal decisions on policy, investment, or collaboration. To bring clarity to this topic, this manuscript provides an overview of (i) the different circular pathways for plastics, with a focus on recycling, (ii) the most common categorization of recycling technologies, (iii) what is considered 'recycling' by the European Commission and (iv) some alternative terms used in grey and academic literature to describe recycling technologies.

Automated summary

The increasing activities in plastics recycling have resulted in a proliferation of terminology, causing confusion and uncertainty. This paper aims to provide clarity on the different pathways, categorizations, and definitions of plastic recycling to enhance understanding and enable better decision-making.