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Chemical recycling has the largest gap in this industry between what has been announced and what is running. As of October 2025, some 65 projects with a combined capacity of around 2.8 million tonnes of plastic waste per year had been announced or were under construction in Europe, with pyrolysis alone accounting for a potential 1.68 million tonnes. Installed pyrolysis input capacity actually in operation is roughly 150,000 tonnes per year, with more than 300,000 tonnes under construction or in commissioning. Meanwhile Viridor closed three Quantafuel plants in Scandinavia and Plastic Energy, one of the sector’s best-known pioneers, went into administration.
Announced versus operating
Put the two figures side by side and the ratio is stark: roughly one twentieth of the announced pyrolysis capacity is in operation. That gap is not evidence of bad faith among developers. It reflects how hard the step from pilot to commercial plant is in this technology, and how unfavourable the economics are at current fossil feedstock prices.
Pyrolysis oil competes with naphtha. When naphtha is cheap, a plant that has to collect, sort, dry and thermally crack mixed plastic waste has no cost advantage — only a regulatory and reputational one. That is enough to justify a pilot. It has not consistently been enough to justify a commercial line.
Closures and new commitments
Viridor shut its three Quantafuel chemical recycling plants across Scandinavia, stating that the sector was not commercially viable. Plastic Energy, a UK chemical recycling pioneer, entered administration.
At the same time, new capacity is being committed. Waste Plastic Upcycling has announced plans for a facility at the Port of Rotterdam able to process 80,000 tonnes per year of post-consumer end-of-life plastic. The technology has not been abandoned — it is going through a selection phase in which the survivors are those with access to cheap, stable feedstock and an offtaker willing to pay a premium over the fossil equivalent.
Regulation is starting to settle the arguments — inconsistently
For years the open question was whether chemically recycled material should count towards recycled content targets. Answers are now arriving, and they do not point the same way.
On one side, the draft implementing act under the Single-Use Plastics Directive, which secured the support of the Member State committee on 6 February 2026, foresees the inclusion of chemically recycled material in PET beverage bottles under defined conditions. The act is on its way to adoption.
On the other, the draft EU-wide end-of-waste criteria for plastics, open for public feedback until 26 January 2026, cover mechanical and physical recycling — processes that retain the polymer chains — and do not, at this stage, take chemical recycling into consideration.
For developers this is an awkward position: the same technology is recognised in one instrument and left out of another, which complicates investment cases running over ten years or more.
What November could change
From 21 November 2026 the EU bans exports of plastic waste to non-OECD countries. An estimated 500,000 to 800,000 tonnes a year will have to be processed locally — and it will be mostly difficult, mixed material, precisely the feedstock chemical recycling was designed for.
Whether that converts announced capacity into operating plants depends on something the sector does not control: the oil price, and whether brand owners will pay a premium for polymer with a lower carbon footprint. Without that premium, an obligation to handle waste domestically leads to incineration rather than to pyrolysis.
How to read supplier claims
- Ask for tonnes produced, not tonnes of nameplate capacity. The two diverge more in this technology than anywhere else in recycling.
- Ask what the plant runs on. A pyrolysis unit fed on clean production scrap is a different proposition from one fed on mixed post-consumer waste, both technically and in terms of the environmental claim.
- Separate mass-balance allocation from physical content. Chemically recycled content usually reaches the product through a certified mass balance system, not as physically identifiable material.
Frequently asked questions
How much chemical recycling capacity exists in Europe?
As of October 2025, 65 projects totalling around 2.8 million tonnes per year had been announced or were under construction, with pyrolysis accounting for a potential 1.68 million tonnes. Installed pyrolysis input capacity in operation is around 150,000 tonnes per year, with over 300,000 tonnes under construction or commissioning.
Which chemical recycling plants have closed?
Viridor closed three Quantafuel plants in Scandinavia, citing a lack of commercial viability, and the UK pioneer Plastic Energy went into administration. New capacity is still being committed, including an 80,000 tonne per year facility planned by Waste Plastic Upcycling at the Port of Rotterdam.
Does chemically recycled material count towards recycled content targets?
It depends on the instrument. The draft implementing act under the Single-Use Plastics Directive, supported by the Member State committee on 6 February 2026, foresees its inclusion in PET bottles under conditions. The draft end-of-waste criteria for plastics cover only mechanical and physical recycling.
Read next
- Chemical recycling in Europe: pilot and commercial plants
- ISCC PLUS and mass balance: how the system actually works
- Post-consumer recyclate (PCR): what it is and how rPET, rHDPE and rPP are produced
Sources: EUWID, survey of announced European chemical recycling projects (October 2025); reports on the closure of Viridor’s Quantafuel plants and on Plastic Energy; Waste Plastic Upcycling plans for the Port of Rotterdam; European Commission answer to parliamentary question E-000567/2026; draft EU end-of-waste criteria for plastics; Regulation (EU) 2024/1157.