March 10, 2026 12:39

Repeats Northern Europe, a Dutch company specialising in the recycling of polyolefins, particularly polyethylene film, and based in Zutphen, is the latest high-profile casualty of the crisis that has been hitting Europe’s plastics recycling industry for months.

After sharply scaling back production activities last spring and cutting jobs, the Dutch company was declared insolvent in recent days by the Gelderland bankruptcy court, which appointed a trustee.

Repeats Northern Europe is part of the Repeats Group, controlled by private equity firm Ara Partners, which four years ago announced an ambitious Europe-wide industrial expansion plan driven by regulation on waste and single-use plastics. It first acquired the Dutch companies Daly Plastics, Caroda and Daalder Groep, then expanded into Spain with Anviplas, into Italy with Polimero and into France through RG Group.

That strategy has now ended in the same outcome seen at other European recycling companies in recent months. According to a report by industry association Plastics Recyclers Europe (PRE), more than one million tonnes of plastics recycling capacity have been lost in Europe over the past three years.

The crisis is being driven by four major factors acting at the same time: high energy costs, falling demand for recycled plastics, competition from virgin materials and growing low-priced, unregulated imports from non-EU countries.

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