FAO report warns of food safety risks in recycled plastics, citing Africa’s informal sector, fragmented collection systems

AFRICA – A new FAO report has raised concerns over food safety risks in recycled plastics, warning that poorly controlled waste streams could expose consumers to harmful chemicals, challenges particularly acute across Africa.

The report, titled “Food Safety Implications of Recycled Plastics and Alternative Food Contact Materials,” notes that food contact materials play an important role in reducing food waste, with more than two-thirds of packaging materials produced globally used in the food sector. 

However, the authors warn that recycled plastics may contain non-intentionally added substances (NIAS) that can enter packaging during recycling processes, with studies finding recycled plastics can release harmful substances including metals, brominated flame retardants, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), and phthalates, sometimes at higher levels than virgin plastics.

Africa’s Recycling Challenge

For Africa, the report’s findings carry particular weight. 

The continent’s largest PET recycling facility, Indorama Ventures’ 45,000-tonne-per-year food-grade rPET plant in Lagos, set to begin operations by 2027, faces a fundamental feedstock challenge. 

Africa does not lack PET bottles, but it lacks consistent, structured ways to turn those bottles into reliable feedstock for large-scale recycling. 

Supply chains remain fragmented, material quality varies, and documentation is often incomplete, making it difficult to meet the traceability and purity standards required for food-contact applications.

The informal recycling sector is the backbone of PET bottle recovery across West Africa, with individual collectors and small enterprises recovering vast quantities of material that would otherwise be lost. 

Yet they operate without formal pricing consistency, visibility, or the robust documentation required to satisfy international buyers and food safety regulators. 

For a facility that needs 45,000 tonnes of PET feedstock annually, inconsistency is not a minor issue, it is a fundamental risk.

The report’s warnings about poorly controlled waste streams and post-consumer misuse are not theoretical for African food systems, they are daily realities. 

The Codex Alimentarius Commission has requested member countries to indicate whether international guidance on food safety considerations for recycled plastics would be beneficial, with broad support for developing such guidance.

When Food Safety and Recycling Collide

A recycled PET bottle that becomes a new bottle is a circular economy success. A recycled bottle that leaches contaminants into cooking oil is a public health failure. 

The FAO report does not argue against recycled packaging, it argues for the systems that make it safe. For Africa, building those systems is as urgent as building the recycling plants themselves.

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