Microplastic Recycling Market

Microplastic Recycling Market Sizes by Product (Primary, and Secondary), By Application (Packaging, Agriculture, Consumer Goods, Textile, Automotive & Transportation, and Others), Regions, Global Industry Analysis, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2024 to 2033

Base Year: 2023 Historical Data: 2020-22
  • Report ID: TBI-14458
  • Published Date: Jul, 2024
  • Pages: 239
  • Category: Chemicals & Materials
  • Format: PDF
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The global microplastic recycling market was valued at USD 284.46 Million in 2023 and is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 6.5% from 2024 to 2033. There exist two primary varieties of recycling products that handle microplastics. The first is filtration systems, which trap plastic debris from water sources, such as wastewater runoff, through screens or filters with small pore sizes. This aspect allows for continuous filtration of significant volumes of water but necessitates frequent maintenance and filter changes to remain productive. In contrast, digester systems employ chemical or biological means to decay solid microparticles into their elemental constituents instead of using filters; this enables disposal beyond just fluids that are not otherwise possible by just filtering. However, these come at the expense of higher operational expenses than mere screening options despite serving a similar purpose in preventing environmental contamination due to persistent plastic buildup like discharged sewage.

Market Introduction:

The process of microplastic recycling involves the collection, processing, and repurposing of small plastic particles that are known to be harmful environmental pollutants. These particles come from various sources, such as broken-down larger plastics, personal care items containing microbeads or synthetic fibres obtained from textiles and industrial processes. Due to their prevalence and minimal size, they pose significant challenges for sustainability efforts. Microplastics must first be collected to undergo advanced technological procedures with scientific methodologies alongside regulatory policies tackling ongoing environmental concerns by transforming them into reusable resources through micro-plastic recycling initiatives designed ​​to reduce adverse impacts on our planet's ecosystems whilst addressing waste management issues.

Both primary and secondary sources contribute to the emergence of microplastics. The former are intentionally manufactured in small sizes for specific applications, like cosmetics or industrial use. At the same time, the latter results from larger plastic items breaking into fragments (e.g., bottles, bags and fishing nets). Due to their polymer resilience, these tiny particles persist in nature for prolonged periods, infiltrating ecosystems via waterways and oceans where marine organisms ingest them before entering food chains. Such accumulation can cause ecological disturbances that impose risks upon both wildlife and human health alike.

Microplastic Recycling Market Size

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Recent Development
  • In September 2022: Novolex announced the opening of a major investment of $10 million at its US site in North Vernon. With this investment, the facility will be able to recycle more plastic bags and other items made of polyethylene (PE) film. The new plant can process an incredible 40 million pounds of feedstock annually.       

Market Dynamics:

Drivers

Growing Environmental Awareness and Concerns - The escalating concern and awareness about environmental impact and heightened awareness regarding the harmful effects of microplastics is a major driving force behind the growth of the microplastic recycling industry. These tiny particles have been discovered in every corner of our planet, even at extreme altitudes or depths beneath ocean waters. Their potential to harm marine life, ecosystems, and human health has prompted responses from government institutions and individual members of society concerned about these issues as demand for solutions that can mitigate negative impacts increases alongside mounting public pressure on governments and businesses alike. This factor is boosting the market growth and development.

Restraints:

High Costs Associated - The economic feasibility of recycling microplastics remains a hindrance to its widespread implementation, given the substantial expenses involved in collecting, sorting and processing. Advanced technologies necessarily increase costs substantially; for example, nanotechnology-aided filtration units or aerial drones with built-in collection devices prove expensive to manufacture and implement. Additionally, due to the varied nature of contaminants attributable to microplastic pollution that require pre-treatment procedures such as purification techniques invariably accrue additional operational costs. Consequently, high operating budgets offset potential revenues realized from sales generated by recycled products, thus making it difficult for recycler's profit margins without monetary support initiatives like financial aid packages, which come under subsidy programs run jointly by governments/NGOs/private consulate sectors. This factor is limiting the market growth.

Opportunities:

Technological Advancements - Technological advancements notably propel the microplastic recycling market. Improved collection, detection, and recycling technologies are enhancing the management of microplastics nowadays. With advanced filtration systems, it's possible to trap these pollutants from wastewater before they enter natural bodies of water. The utilization of spectroscopic and chromatographic techniques greatly aids the identification process while sorting out recycled materials more efficiently. Besides that, new chemical and biological methods for breaking down plastic into usable resources or eco-friendly substances continue to evolve positively with time. These groundbreaking inventions are vital in overcoming hurdles linked to effective recycling processes, promoting significant growth within this industry. This factor is anticipated to provide lucrative growth opportunities over the years.

Regional segmentation analysis:

The regions analyzed for the market include North America, Europe, South America, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa. Europe region emerged as the most prominent global microplastic recycling market, with a 42.0% market revenue share in 2023. Europe is a frontrunner in pioneering technological advancements for microplastic recycling, owing to various research institutions, universities, and companies focused on developing innovative recycling methods. Some remarkable innovations include advanced filtration systems, chemical processes and biotechnological methods that utilize enzymes and microbes to break down microplastics. Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands are among the countries propelling R&D efforts supported by public and private investments. This aspect further strengthens Europe's capability to manage waste effectively while elevating its share market participation. Additionally, the region boasts vast economic capabilities and accommodating investment factors integral to achieving significant strides within their respective markets. Furthermore, a developed infrastructure bolstering conducive approaches toward plastic management can be attributed partially to effective government incentives through subsidies or grants, thus encouraging investors to back up these crucial innovation ventures centered around mitigating our reliance/usage of disposable wear.  The regional market players also engage in various market strategies such as product innovation, product differentiation, mergers, acquisitions, partnerships, and strategic alliances to maintain their competitive edge.

Europe Region Microplastic recycling Market Share in 2023 - 42.0%

 

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  • In February 2023: The European Union funded the REMEDIES project with a budget of over USD 8.8 million, which set out on an ambitious quest to collect over 400 tons of microplastics. The project's goal is to address the issue of microplastic contamination in various Mediterranean regions by developing cutting-edge solutions for the extraction, recycling, collection, and conversion of waste into new products. Building a sustainable paradigm that effectively tackles the effects of microplastics is the main objective of the REMEDIES project.   
Product Segment Analysis

The product segment includes secondary and primary. The secondary segment dominated, with a market share of around 70% in 2023. A significant portion of global microplastic pollution is accounted for by secondary microplastics, which are formed when plastic products degrade in the environment. Popular sources include consumer goods such as automotive tires, fishing gear, and plastic packaging, which have fragmented over time due to pervasive usage. The extent of secondary microplastics depends on consumption patterns, waste management practices and environmental degradation processes. With a large variety and volume of plastic items produced annually comes widespread prevalence across marine, freshwater and terrestrial environments, posing ecological risks with detrimental health effects too extensive it accounts for their prominent position in recycling tactics worldwide; ingestion by sea creatures causing bio-accumulation along the food chain including potential harmfulness toward humans alike.

Application Segment Analysis

The application segment includes packaging, agriculture, consumer goods, textile, automotive & transportation and others. The packaging segment dominated, with a market share of around 35% in 2023. Due to the immense amount of plastic waste produced, packaging comprises a notable portion of the worldwide microplastic recycling market. The widespread use of plastic in packaging is fueled by its cost-effectiveness, lightweight nature, and durability. However, there are obstacles to recycling these plastics, including contamination issues and disparities in composition amongst various types used for packaging purposes. Moreover, the economic feasibility of recycling hinges on variables such as collection/sorting costs, access to appropriate methods/technologies intended specifically for recyclable materials, and demand within the recycled products marketplace accordingly.

Some of the Key Market Players:
  • Carbios
  • Purecycle technologies
  • PlanetCare
  • ECOFARIO
  • Ocean Diagnostics
  • Calyxia
  • Ioniqa
  • Polygonesystems
  • Oceanworks
  • Matter
Report Description:
Attribute Description
Market Size Revenue (USD Million)
Market size value in 2023 USD 284.46 Million
Market size value in 2033 USD 533.97 Million
CAGR (2024 to 2033) 6.5%
Historical data 2020-2022
Base Year 2023
Forecast 2024-2033
Region The regions analyzed for the market are Asia Pacific, Europe, South America, North America, and Middle East & Africa. Furthermore, the regions are further analyzed at the country level.
Segments Product, Application

Frequesntly Asked Questions

As per The Brainy Insights, the size of the global microplastic recycling market was valued at 284.46 million in 2023 to USD 533.97 million by 2033.

The global microplastic recycling market is growing at a CAGR of 6.5% during the forecast period 2024-2033.

Europe region became the largest market for microplastic recycling.

The growing environmental awareness and concern is driving the market's growth.

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This study forecasts revenue at global, regional, and country levels from 2020 to 2033. The Brainy Insights has segmented the global microplastic recycling market based on below-mentioned segments:

Global Microplastic Recycling Market by Product:

  • Primary
  • Secondary

Global Microplastic Recycling Market by Application:

  • Packaging
  • Agriculture
  • Consumer goods
  • Textile
  • Automotive & Transportation
  • Others

Global Microplastic Recycling Market by Region:

  • North America
    • U.S.
    • Canada
    • Mexico
  • Europe
    • Germany
    • France
    • U.K.
    • Italy
    • Spain
  • Asia-Pacific
    • Japan
    • China
    • India
  • South America
    • Brazil
  • Middle East and Africa  
    • UAE
    • South Africa

Methodology

Research has its special purpose to undertake marketing efficiently. In this competitive scenario, businesses need information across all industry verticals; the information about customer wants, market demand, competition, industry trends, distribution channels etc. This information needs to be updated regularly because businesses operate in a dynamic environment. Our organization, The Brainy Insights incorporates scientific and systematic research procedures in order to get proper market insights and industry analysis for overall business success. The analysis consists of studying the market from a miniscule level wherein we implement statistical tools which helps us in examining the data with accuracy and precision. 

Our research reports feature both; quantitative and qualitative aspects for any market. Qualitative information for any market research process are fundamental because they reveal the customer needs and wants, usage and consumption for any product/service related to a specific industry. This in turn aids the marketers/investors in knowing certain perceptions of the customers. Qualitative research can enlighten about the different product concepts and designs along with unique service offering that in turn, helps define marketing problems and generate opportunities. On the other hand, quantitative research engages with the data collection process through interviews, e-mail interactions, surveys and pilot studies. Quantitative aspects for the market research are useful to validate the hypotheses generated during qualitative research method, explore empirical patterns in the data with the help of statistical tools, and finally make the market estimations.

The Brainy Insights offers comprehensive research and analysis, based on a wide assortment of factual insights gained through interviews with CXOs and global experts and secondary data from reliable sources. Our analysts and industry specialist assume vital roles in building up statistical tools and analysis models, which are used to analyse the data and arrive at accurate insights with exceedingly informative research discoveries. The data provided by our organization have proven precious to a diverse range of companies, facilitating them to address issues such as determining which products/services are the most appealing, whether or not customers use the product in the manner anticipated, the purchasing intentions of the market and many others.

Our research methodology encompasses an idyllic combination of primary and secondary initiatives. Key phases involved in this process are listed below:

MARKET RESEARCH PROCESS

Data Procurement:

The phase involves the gathering and collecting of market data and its related information with the help of different sources & research procedures.

The data procurement stage involves in data gathering and collecting through various data sources.

This stage involves in extensive research. These data sources includes:

Purchased Database: Purchased databases play a crucial role in estimating the market sizes irrespective of the domain. Our purchased database includes:

  • The organizational databases such as D&B Hoovers, and Bloomberg that helps us to identify the competitive scenario of the key market players/organizations along with the financial information.
  • Industry/Market databases such as Statista, and Factiva provides market/industry insights and deduce certain formulations. 
  • We also have contractual agreements with various reputed data providers and third party vendors who provide information which are not limited to:
    • Import & Export Data
    • Business Trade Information
    • Usage rates of a particular product/service on certain demographics mainly focusing on the unmet prerequisites

Primary Research: The Brainy Insights interacts with leading companies and experts of the concerned domain to develop the analyst team’s market understanding and expertise. It improves and substantiates every single data presented in the market reports. Primary research mainly involves in telephonic interviews, E-mail interactions and face-to-face interviews with the raw material providers, manufacturers/producers, distributors, & independent consultants. The interviews that we conduct provides valuable data on market size and industry growth trends prevailing in the market. Our organization also conducts surveys with the various industry experts in order to gain overall insights of the industry/market. For instance, in healthcare industry we conduct surveys with the pharmacists, doctors, surgeons and nurses in order to gain insights and key information of a medical product/device/equipment which the customers are going to usage. Surveys are conducted in the form of questionnaire designed by our own analyst team. Surveys plays an important role in primary research because surveys helps us to identify the key target audiences of the market. Additionally, surveys helps to identify the key target audience engaged with the market. Our survey team conducts the survey by targeting the key audience, thus gaining insights from them. Based on the perspectives of the customers, this information is utilized to formulate market strategies. Moreover, market surveys helps us to understand the current competitive situation of the industry. To be precise, our survey process typically involve with the 360 analysis of the market. This analytical process begins by identifying the prospective customers for a product or service related to the market/industry to obtain data on how a product/service could fit into customers’ lives.

Secondary Research: The secondary data sources includes information published by the on-profit organizations such as World bank, WHO, company fillings, investor presentations, annual reports, national government documents, statistical databases, blogs, articles, white papers and others. From the annual report, we analyse a company’s revenue to understand the key segment and market share of that organization in a particular region. We analyse the company websites and adopt the product mapping technique which is important for deriving the segment revenue. In the product mapping method, we select and categorize the products offered by the companies catering to domain specific market, deduce the product revenue for each of the companies so as to get overall estimation of the market size. We also source data and analyses trends based on information received from supply side and demand side intermediaries in the value chain. The supply side denotes the data gathered from supplier, distributor, wholesaler and the demand side illustrates the data gathered from the end customers for respective market domain.

The supply side for a domain specific market is analysed by:

  • Estimating and projecting penetration rates through analysing product attributes, availability of internal and external substitutes, followed by pricing analysis of the product.
  • Experiential assessment of year-on-year sales of the product by conducting interviews.

The demand side for the market is estimated through:

  • Evaluating the penetration level and usage rates of the product.
  • Referring to the historical data to determine the growth rate and evaluate the industry trends

In-house Library: Apart from these third-party sources, we have our in-house library of qualitative and quantitative information. Our in-house database includes market data for various industry and domains. These data are updated on regular basis as per the changing market scenario. Our library includes, historic databases, internal audit reports and archives.

Sometimes there are instances where there is no metadata or raw data available for any domain specific market. For those cases, we use our expertise to forecast and estimate the market size in order to generate comprehensive data sets. Our analyst team adopt a robust research technique in order to produce the estimates:

  • Applying demographic along with psychographic segmentation for market evaluation
  • Determining the Micro and Macro-economic indicators for each region 
  • Examining the industry indicators prevailing in the market. 

Data Synthesis: This stage involves the analysis & mapping of all the information obtained from the previous step. It also involves in scrutinizing the data for any discrepancy observed while data gathering related to the market. The data is collected with consideration to the heterogeneity of sources. Robust scientific techniques are in place for synthesizing disparate data sets and provide the essential contextual information that can orient market strategies. The Brainy Insights has extensive experience in data synthesis where the data passes through various stages:

  • Data Screening: Data screening is the process of scrutinising data/information collected from primary research for errors and amending those collected data before data integration method. The screening involves in examining raw data, identifying errors and dealing with missing data. The purpose of the data screening is to ensure data is correctly entered or not. The Brainy Insights employs objective and systematic data screening grades involving repeated cycles of quality checks, screening and suspect analysis.
  • Data Integration: Integrating multiple data streams is necessary to produce research studies that provide in-depth picture to the clients. These data streams come from multiple research studies and our in house database. After screening of the data, our analysts conduct creative integration of data sets, optimizing connections between integrated surveys and syndicated data sources. There are mainly 2 research approaches that we follow in order to integrate our data; top down approach and bottom up approach.

Market Deduction & Formulation: The final stage comprises of assigning data points at appropriate market spaces so as to deduce feasible conclusions. Analyst perspective & subject matter expert based holistic form of market sizing coupled with industry analysis also plays a crucial role in this stage.

This stage involves in finalization of the market size and numbers that we have collected from data integration step. With data interpolation, it is made sure that there is no gap in the market data. Successful trend analysis is done by our analysts using extrapolation techniques, which provide the best possible forecasts for the market.

Data Validation & Market Feedback: Validation is the most important step in the process. Validation & re-validation via an intricately designed process helps us finalize data-points to be used for final calculations.

The Brainy Insights interacts with leading companies and experts of the concerned domain to develop the analyst team’s market understanding and expertise. It improves and substantiates every single data presented in the market reports. The data validation interview and discussion panels are typically composed of the most experienced industry members. The participants include, however, are not limited to:

  • CXOs and VPs of leading companies’ specific to sector
  • Purchasing managers, technical personnel, end-users
  • Key opinion leaders such as investment bankers, and industry consultants

Moreover, we always validate our data and findings through primary respondents from all the major regions we are working on.

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