How to Double the Share of Recycled Plastics in Norway
Only 24 percent of our plastic waste is recycled. This proportion must be doubled, and here's what it takes.
Published: 12.May, 2021 Last updated: 05.December, 2025
There is a lot of talk about the need to reduce our use of plastic packaging, and not without reason. Often these are single-use products that go straight in the trash after use. Additionally, packaging accounts for 40 percent of our total plastic waste in Norway.
- At the same time, a full 60 percent of plastic waste is something else. Textiles, building and construction products, and equipment from fisheries and aquaculture account for much of our plastic waste. And of all the plastic we use, only about a quarter is turned into new plastic products. This report shows us what we need to do about this, says Lars Brede Johansen, acting Head of Expertise at the Norwegian Retailers' Environment Fund.
Eight measures to increase recycling
The Norwegian Retailers' Environment Fund has commissioned a survey of the measures needed to recycle 50 percent of all plastic waste in Norway. The report is now ready and has established eight measures to increase the recycling rate in society.
- The report provides a solid foundation for decision-makers, both among national and regional authorities, and in companies. Most people play a role in addressing the plastic problem, and now we have the recipe and can distribute the responsibility, says Johansen.
Necessary measures to achieve 50% material recycling in Norway:
- Recyclable plastics: Producers must stop manufacturing plastics that are not recyclable.
- National sorting facility: Investment is needed in a national structure for sorting residual waste.
- National recycling facility: Investment is needed in a national facility for upgrading, washing, and recycling.
- Closed loops: Especially relevant for fisheries and aquaculture equipment, building materials, and some packaging.
- Increased use of recycled plastics: A rapid transition of the Norwegian plastics industry is needed.
- Increased dismantling and sorting for recycling: Plastics from discarded vehicles and WEEE must also be recycled.
- Develop value chains for textiles: For clothes made from plastics and composite materials.
- Monitor developments in chemical recycling: Where mechanical recycling is very difficult or impossible.
- Must Sweep Our Own Doorstep
The fund particularly highlights three measures they consider important going forward.
- We need to build more facilities for sorting and recycling plastics here in Norway. Today, most of the Norwegian plastic waste is sent to Europe, but the capacity there is overloaded. We must start sweeping our own doorstep, says Johansen.
Furthermore, they promote design for recycling and increased use of recycled plastic as important.
- It is the companies that produce and use plastic that need to take action, and we must work at both ends of the value chain. Plastic products must be designed with recycling in mind so that the quantity and quality of recycled plastic as raw material are good enough. At the same time, plastic producers must work to increase the share of recycled plastic in their products, says Johansen.
Johansen hopes many feel addressed by the report and review their own routines.
- What clearly emerges in the report is that no single actor can solve this problem alone. Everyone can do something, and everyone must take action. The door is already closed to Asia, and capacity is overloaded in Europe. We can no longer send the plastic away; we must take responsibility for our own plastic waste, concludes Johansen.
