How to sell waste plastics in Europe

Lumps are the solidified start-up, purge and reject material from extrusion and moulding lines. Because they are usually one polymer and rarely contaminated, they are among the best feedstock forms around: sell them as they are to traders who grind, or regrind them yourself for a better price.

Yes. Purging and start-up shut-down material from PE and PP lines is single-polymer production scrap, not waste in most regimes, and it places well with both mechanical and chemical recyclers. Keep the polymers separate per line and note what each lot is.

Agglomerate, often traded as EVOA, is light plastic film that has been densified into flowable granulate. For warehouses of loose film it is the difference between hauling air and selling tonnage, and it is one of the few forms still acceptable for the OECD export routes that remain after the non-OECD ban.

Published feedstock quality guidelines work from roughly 85 percent PE and PP, a maximum of 7 percent moisture and a maximum of 15 percent total contamination, with PVC sorted out as far as possible because its chlorine corrodes plants and lands in the oil. Individual plants set their own limits, usually tighter, which is why we ask for the polymer mix and test results first.

Sorted single-polymer bales have traded in the low hundreds of euros per tonne and, in tight markets for clean polyolefins, well above that, while mixed or wet loads have traded close to zero. The range is wide because the price follows oil, virgin resin and local demand. A current analysis and a description of the sort are what get you a real number instead of a range.

Unwashed film sells, but into fewer doors and at a discount that often exceeds the washing cost. Buyers who wash themselves price the dirt and the water; buyers who do not simply refuse. If washing is an option for your volumes it is usually the single most profitable upgrade.

Polyolefins: LDPE, LLDPE, HDPE and PP, as film, rigids, regrind or production scrap. Mixed polyolefin streams work when the non-PVC share is high. PET and PA go to other processes, and PVC is the one to keep out, because its chlorine corrodes plants and lands in the oil.

It prices off oil yield per tonne, which runs roughly 60 to 85 percent for clean polyolefins, minus the cost of removing water, ash, metals and PVC. Dry, low-chlorine, repeatable material from a steady flow earns the top of the range; wet mixed bales earn the bottom or no bid at all.

Mixed polyolefin waste sells when the sorting has taken out PVC, wires and obvious residue, and when a chlorine test on the output backs the sort. Fully mixed municipal bales are a different product with a different and much smaller set of takers.

Not in the way fuel feedstocks need ISCC. What plants ask for is waste status handled correctly, a documented origin trail, test results on moisture, ash and chlorine, and a specification you can repeat load after load. Certification becomes relevant when the output oil is claimed as recycled under rules like the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation.

Exports to non-OECD countries are banned from 21 November 2026 under Regulation (EU) 2024/1157, and the remaining OECD routes require nearly single-polymer, well documented material. In practice European tonnage needs a European home, which is exactly the gap pyrolysis and chemical recycling plants are filling.

Intake systems differ, but the pattern is the same everywhere: consistency beats size. Plants contracting intake prefer a reliable several hundred tonnes a month on agreed specification over irregular large parcels of changing composition.

Send us the polymer mix, the form the material is in, the contamination picture, the monthly tonnage and any test results. We will tell you which pyrolysis routes fit, what the sorting still needs and what the tonnage is likely to clear against, including when the answer is that you are not ready yet.