Recyclability is a property of the material; the recycling rate is the performance of a system in the field. According to Eurostat the EU generated 177.8 kg of packaging waste per inhabitant in 2023 and reached an overall rate of 67.5 per cent, against a 2030 target of 70. For plastic packaging the target is 55 per cent, and in 2023 only Belgium (59.5 per cent) and Latvia (59.2 per cent) exceeded it.
EPS is very light for its volume, so it is compacted before recycling. The fish box study prepared for EUMEPS takes the compaction machine at 0.279 to 0.391 kWh per kilogram and gives the European EPS recycling rate as 55 per cent.
A reusable plastic crate is different: retired crates are gathered in the operator's own flow. But the same study defines the collection rate as the return rate raised to the number of uses. With a 95 per cent return rate, about 60 per cent of crates are still collected after ten uses; the rest leak out of the fleet.
Get the collector's accepted form (clean, label-free, compacted) in writing; a recycling logo is not proof of local acceptance. In an insulated container the shell and insulation are usually different materials. At the quotation stage, ask your supplier how the two are separated, which material codes mark them and whether take-back is offered.
