Global Waste Recycling Market Outlook, 2031

The global waste recycling industry covers the collection, sorting, processing and sale of recovered materials from municipal, commercial, industrial, construction and electronic waste, turning them into secondary raw materials for manufacturing. Major material streams include paper and cardboard, plastics, metals including steel, aluminium and copper, glass, organic waste converted to compost and biogas, construction and demolition materials such as concrete and asphalt, textiles, electronic waste, batteries, tyres and wood. Recycling includes mechanical recycling, in which materials are sorted, cleaned and reprocessed, chemical or advanced recycling of plastics through pyrolysis, depolymerisation and solvent-based processes, and biological recycling of organic waste. The industry includes waste management companies such as WM, Republic Services, Waste Connections, GFL, Veolia, SUEZ, Remondis, Biffa, FCC and Cleanaway; metal recyclers such as Sims, Commercial Metals, Nucor, Steel Dynamics, Novelis, Aurubis and European Metal Recycling; paper recyclers and mills such as International Paper, Smurfit Westrock, DS Smith, now part of International Paper, and Mondi; plastics recyclers such as ALPLA, Indorama Ventures, Veolia, Biffa and Plastipak; chemical recyclers such as ExxonMobil, Eastman, PureCycle, Plastic Energy and Agilyx; e-waste and battery recyclers such as Umicore, Li-Cycle, now part of Glencore, Redwood Materials and Ascend Elements; and many regional and informal-sector recyclers.

Global recycling rates vary widely, from high rates for metals and paper to low rates for plastics, with less than 10% of plastic waste recycled globally according to the OECD and UNEP. Policy is the main driver. The EU requires 55% of municipal waste to be recycled by 2025 and 65% by 2035 and its Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, applying from August 2026, sets recyclability requirements and minimum recycled content in plastic packaging from 2030, the EU Critical Raw Materials Act and Battery Regulation set recycling and recovered content targets, and the revised Waste Framework Directive of 2025 introduced EPR for textiles. In the United States, several states have introduced EPR for packaging, and WM and Republic Services are investing heavily in recycling and renewable natural gas. However, the industry has faced difficulties: prices for recycled plastics fell below virgin resin prices in 2024 and 2025 as petrochemical overcapacity pushed down virgin prices, leading to closures of plastics recycling plants in Europe, and negotiations on a global plastics treaty failed to reach agreement in Busan in 2024 and Geneva in August 2025, with talks continuing in 2026. Chemical recycling has progressed slowly, with some projects delayed or cancelled, while battery recycling capacity expanded ahead of demand and some companies, such as Li-Cycle, entered bankruptcy and were acquired. Steel and aluminium scrap demand is rising as electric arc furnaces and low-carbon metal production expand, supported by carbon pricing and the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.

Market Dynamics

Market Drivers
• Regulation, EPR and Recycled Content Mandates: Recycling targets, landfill taxes and bans, extended producer responsibility for packaging, electronics, batteries, textiles and vehicles, deposit return schemes and recycled content mandates in the EU, UK, US states, Canada, Japan, South Korea, India and other countries require more recycling and create demand for recycled materials. EPR shifts the cost of recycling to producers, providing stable funding for collection and processing.
• Decarbonisation, Resource Security and Corporate Commitments: Recycling metals, paper and plastics uses much less energy and emits less carbon than producing virgin materials, and steelmakers, aluminium producers and packaging companies increasingly use recycled content to reduce emissions under carbon pricing and customer demands. Governments treat recycled materials, especially critical minerals from batteries and electronics, as strategic resources. Consumer goods companies have committed to recycled content in packaging, supporting demand.

Market Challenges
• Commodity Price Volatility and Competition from Virgin Materials: Recycling economics depend on prices for recovered materials, which fluctuate with commodity markets, and recycled plastics compete with virgin plastics whose prices fell in 2024 and 2025 because of petrochemical overcapacity, leading to recycler closures in Europe. Low prices for recovered paper and other materials can make collection uneconomic without EPR or municipal support. Export restrictions, such as China's ban on waste imports, disrupt markets.
• Contamination, Complex Materials and Infrastructure Gaps: Contamination of recycling streams, multi-material and difficult-to-recycle packaging, black plastics, composites and textiles limit recycling rates and quality. Many countries, especially in the Global South, lack collection and recycling infrastructure, and informal waste pickers handle much of the recycling. Chemical recycling faces technical, economic and regulatory challenges, and battery recycling capacity has faced overcapacity and financial difficulties.



Market Trends
• Extended Producer Responsibility and Circular Economy Policies: EPR programmes for packaging are expanding in the EU, UK, US states, Canada, India and other countries, funding recycling infrastructure and creating incentives for recyclable design through eco-modulated fees. Circular economy strategies promote reuse, repair and recycling, and the EU is developing measures to support the market for secondary raw materials. Negotiations on a global plastics treaty continue despite the failure to agree in 2025.
• Advanced Sorting, Chemical Recycling and Critical Material Recovery: AI-powered sorting, robotics and data analytics are improving recovery rates and material quality. Chemical recycling technologies are developing to handle plastics that are difficult to recycle mechanically, although commercial scale-up has been slow. Recovery of critical materials such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, copper and rare earths from batteries and electronics is expanding, supported by the EU Battery Regulation and industrial policies in the United States and Asia.

Segment Analysis

Metals and paper and cardboard account for the largest share of recycling value, while plastics, organics, e-waste and batteries are growing and strategically important segments. Metals recycling, including ferrous scrap for steelmaking and non-ferrous metals such as aluminium, copper, lead, zinc and precious metals, accounts for the largest share of recycling value, because metals retain their properties when recycled and have high prices; electric arc furnace steelmaking and low-carbon aluminium drive demand for scrap. Paper and cardboard recycling is one of the largest streams by volume, with recovered fibre used to make packaging, tissue and newsprint, and e-commerce has increased cardboard volumes. Plastics recycling, including PET bottles, HDPE containers, polypropylene and films, is growing but faces quality and economic challenges, and chemical recycling is an emerging segment. Glass recycling produces cullet for new containers and fibreglass. Organic waste recycling, including composting and anaerobic digestion of food and garden waste to produce compost and biogas, is growing with separate collection requirements. Construction and demolition waste recycling produces aggregates and recovered materials. Electronic waste recycling recovers precious and base metals. Battery recycling recovers lithium, nickel, cobalt and other critical materials. Textiles, tyres, wood and other streams form further segments.

Municipal solid waste and commercial and industrial waste are the main sources of recyclable materials, while construction and demolition, electronic and end-of-life vehicle waste are significant sources. Municipal solid waste from households, including packaging, paper, food waste and garden waste, is collected by municipalities or contracted haulers through kerbside collection, drop-off centres and deposit return systems, and it is a major source of recyclable paper, plastics, glass, metals and organics. Commercial and industrial waste, from retailers, offices, manufacturers, warehouses and restaurants, includes large volumes of cardboard, plastics, pallets, metals and food waste, often of higher quality than household recyclables. Construction and demolition waste, one of the largest waste streams by weight, includes concrete, bricks, asphalt, wood, metals and gypsum. Electronic waste from consumers and businesses contains metals, plastics and hazardous materials. End-of-life vehicles are shredded to recover steel, aluminium, copper and other materials, with high recycling rates. Industrial scrap from manufacturing, such as metal offcuts and production waste, is recycled efficiently. Agricultural waste, including plastics and organic residues, forms a further source. Batteries from vehicles, electronics and energy storage are an emerging high-value source.

Mechanical recycling accounts for the vast majority of recycling, while chemical and biological recycling are growing segments. Mechanical recycling, in which materials are sorted, cleaned, shredded, melted or pulped and reprocessed without changing their chemical structure, is the dominant process for metals, paper, glass and most plastics, and it is generally the most energy-efficient and cost-effective method. Chemical or advanced recycling of plastics, including pyrolysis that converts mixed plastics into oils, gasification, depolymerisation that breaks polymers such as PET and nylon into monomers, and solvent-based purification, aims to recycle plastics that mechanical recycling cannot handle, but it faces high costs, energy use and debates about environmental benefits and mass balance accounting. Biological recycling, including composting and anaerobic digestion, turns organic waste into compost, digestate and biogas, which can be upgraded to renewable natural gas. Hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical processes recover metals from batteries, e-waste and industrial residues. Energy recovery through waste-to-energy is not counted as recycling but complements it. Reuse and remanufacturing extend product life before recycling.

Waste management companies and municipalities collect most recyclable materials, while specialised recyclers, manufacturers and informal sector workers play major roles in processing and markets. Waste management companies, including integrated firms that collect, sort and process recyclables, operate material recovery facilities and sell recovered materials to mills and manufacturers, and they are central to the recycling system in North America, Europe and Australia. Municipalities organise collection and sometimes own sorting and processing facilities, especially in Europe and Asia. Specialised recyclers process particular materials, including metal scrap processors, plastics reprocessors, paper recyclers, glass processors, e-waste recyclers and battery recyclers. Manufacturers, including steelmakers, aluminium producers, paper mills, packaging producers and consumer goods companies, use recycled materials and sometimes operate their own recycling facilities, such as beverage companies investing in PET recycling. Producer responsibility organisations manage EPR obligations for producers. The informal sector, including millions of waste pickers in developing countries, collects and sorts a large share of recyclables in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Retailers and deposit return scheme operators collect beverage containers and other items.

Regional Analysis

Europe has the highest recycling rates and most advanced recycling regulation, Asia-Pacific accounts for the largest volume of recycling activity, and North America is a major market investing in recycling infrastructure under new EPR laws. Asia-Pacific accounts for the largest volume of recycling activity, driven by China's large scrap metal, paper and plastics recycling industries, mandatory waste separation in major cities and its policy of recycling domestically after banning waste imports in 2018. Japan and South Korea have high recycling rates for packaging and electronics under long-standing EPR systems, and India's EPR rules for plastic packaging, e-waste and batteries are formalising recycling, while informal waste pickers remain important. Southeast Asia is expanding recycling capacity, sometimes receiving waste imports. Europe has the most advanced recycling policies and among the highest recycling rates, with EU targets for municipal waste and packaging, the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation applying from August 2026, deposit return schemes, landfill restrictions, the Battery Regulation, the Critical Raw Materials Act and textile EPR under the 2025 Waste Framework Directive revision; Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and the Nordic countries lead, while weak plastics markets led to recycler closures in 2024 and 2025. North America is a major market, with large metal and paper recycling industries and growing investment in material recovery facilities by WM, Republic Services and others, supported by packaging EPR laws in Oregon, California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, Maryland and Washington and brand owner commitments, while US plastics recycling rates remain low. Canada's provinces are implementing packaging EPR. Latin America, the Middle East and Africa have lower formal recycling rates but growing EPR and infrastructure, including Brazil's reverse logistics laws, Chile's EPR, South Africa's EPR regulations and Gulf states' circular economy plans.

Considered in this report
• Historic Year: 2020
• Base Year: 2025
• Estimated Year: 2026
• Forecast Year: 2031

Aspects covered in this report
• Global Waste Recycling Market with its value and forecast along with its segments
• Various drivers and challenges
• Ongoing trends and developments
• Top profiled companies
• Strategic recommendation

By Material
• Metals
• Paper and Cardboard
• Plastics
• Glass
• Organic Waste
• Construction and Demolition Materials
• E-Waste
• Batteries
• Textiles

By Source
• Municipal Solid Waste
• Commercial and Industrial Waste
• Construction and Demolition Waste
• Electronic Waste
• End-of-Life Vehicles
• Industrial Scrap

By Process
• Mechanical Recycling
• Chemical Recycling
• Biological Recycling
• Metallurgical Recovery

By Stakeholder
• Waste Management Companies
• Municipalities
• Specialised Recyclers
• Manufacturers
• Informal Sector