As a result of the increasing importance in quantitative terms, packaging is considered a specific waste stream, with its management being carried out in a differentiated way, through the creation of specific legislation, which introduces a co-responsibility for all stakeholders in the packaging life cycle.
The scope of packaging waste includes packaging from the municipal waste stream and packaging from the non-municipal waste stream, in this case, industrial and non-reusable packaging.
The municipal packaging waste stream is managed by separate collection, through voluntary deposition systems or door-to-door collection, as well as by the sorting of packaging waste that is withdrawn through infrastructures receiving waste from undifferentiated collection. These circuits are provided by the management entities, Sociedade Ponto Verde (SPV), Novo Verde and Electrão, in articulation with the multi-municipal and inter-municipal systems of waste management.
"Recycling" means any recovery operation, including the reprocessing of organic materials, by which the constituent materials of waste are again transformed in products, materials or substances for their original purpose or for other purposes but which do not include energy recovery or reprocessing of materials that should be used as fuel or in filling operations.
In recycling, as in packaging waste production, all wastes from the municipal waste stream are included, accounting for separately collected waste as well as packaging waste withdrawn through infrastructures receiving waste from undifferentiated collection.
The remaining quantities of packaging waste come from the non-municipal waste stream, where the responsibility for sending them for recycling lies with the producers of the waste itself, through waste management operators contracted and licensed for that purpose.
It is important to highlight that there are other packaging waste management circuits, namely VALORMED, which collects waste packaging of medical products, and SIGERU which collects packaging waste from plant protection products, whose contribution to the total quantity is negligible, but whose role in the diversion of packaging waste currently or previously containing products considered hazardous from the municipal circuit is essential.
This fact sheet concerns mainland Portugal and the Autonomous Regions of Madeira and Azores and shall be updated on an annual basis.
In 2019, packaging waste from the municipal stream accounted for about 41% of the total recycled quantity.
After a period of growth in the production of packaging waste, as of 2009, a decrease followed. From 2013 onwards, there has been a reversal of this trend, with an increase, which reversed again, decreasing in 2019.
Regarding the recovery rate (which includes recycling and energy recovery), there has been an increase since 2016, and regarding the recycling rate an increase since 2018, after a decrease in 2017. In 2019, the packaging recycling rate reached the 63%.
In general, recycling rates raised again in 2019.
In 2019, the recycling rate for glass packaging waste, as in previous years, did not reach the defined target. However, there was an increase compared to previous years, having reached 56%.
Since 2008, the year in which a recycling rate of 88% was achieved, the recycling rate of paper/cardboard packaging waste has always presented values well below this number. However, in 2019 there was an increase compared to recent years, with the recycling rate reaching 71%, in compliance with the 60% target.
The recycling rate of plastic packaging waste has, in turn, shown a growing trend since 2004, with the exception of 2017 and 2018, when it decreased, increasing again in 2019.
Regarding metal, again in 2019 the target for this material was not met. However, there was an increase of 4 percentage points compared to 2018, reaching 46%.
The recycling rate of wood packaging waste reached, in 2019, 91%, in compliance with the target established for 2011.
Portuguese Environment Agency – https://apambiente.pt/residuos/embalagens-e-residuos-de-embalagens
Management reports – https://apambiente.pt/residuos/relatorios-de-gestao-1
