On June 30, the European Commission issued new regulations to standardize the management of single-use plastic beverage bottles made primarily of polyethylene terephthalate (PET).
The new regulations establish for the first time a standardized method for calculating, verifying, and declaring the content of chemically recycled materials in PET bottles. This document is part of a package of policies for the plastics industry released by the European Commission in December 2025.
Why the clarification?
In 2023, the EU only issued detailed rules for calculating mechanically recycled PET (Implementation Decision 2023/2683), which did not cover chemical recycling at all; while the Single-Use Plastics Directive (SUPD) requires that from 2025, the average recycled material content of PET bottles be ≥25%, and rise to 30% by 2030.
With the rapid expansion of the chemical recycling industry, large-scale disagreements have arisen among EU member states, companies, and environmental organizations, therefore the EU must unify standards and eliminate ambiguities.
How does the new regulation calculate the recycled material content of PET?
The new regulations will ensure transparency throughout the entire process of calculating the recycled content of virgin single-use PET plastic bottles, a key measure to build a level playing field and stabilize investment expectations in the plastic recycling industry.
The new regulations apply to all recycling processes, covering both chemical and physical-mechanical recycling technologies, helping member countries achieve the recycled content targets set by the Single-Use Plastics Directive.
Physical-mechanical recycling is currently the most widely used method for plastic recycling, typically involving plastic sorting, washing, crushing, and remanufacturing. However, some plastic waste cannot be efficiently recycled mechanically, such as waste plastics with food residue, containing various additives, or a mixture of multiple materials; the recycling performance of these materials is significantly reduced. For such scenarios, chemical recycling can serve as a supplement to mechanical recycling.
Unlike mechanical recycling, chemical recycling breaks down plastics into smaller molecular raw materials that can be reused as raw materials for the production of virgin plastics or other chemical products. This technology allows more types of waste plastics to return to the circular economy system, including products with stringent quality requirements such as food contact packaging. The calculation of the proportion of recycled materials will be implemented in two phases:
In the first phase, only recycled plastics generated within the EU and the European Economic Area will be counted towards the compliance target. Materials from this region can be fully verified to ensure compliance with EU environmental regulations.
From November 21, 2027, recycled plastics from OECD member countries will also be included in the calculation, except for materials explicitly excluded by the Waste Transport Regulation.
Recycled plastics from non-OECD countries can also be included in the calculation if, through a specific agreement, their human health and environmental management standards are proven to be equivalent to EU requirements such as the Waste Framework Directive and the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation.
All recycled materials included in the EU assessment targets must meet the criteria of being credible, traceable, and environmentally friendly. These implementing rules will soon be published in the Official Journal of the European Union and will officially come into effect 20 days after publication.
