BIOPLASTICS MARKET DEVELOPMENT UPDATE 2025
Continuous growth: global production capacities of biobased plastics 2025-2030
Global biobased plastics production capacity currently represents roughly 0.5% of the 431 million tonnes* of plastics produced annually.
Global plastics production is maintaining its upward trajectory, supported by expanding end-use industries and innovation in material performance. Within this momentum, bioplastics continue to rise. Current forecasts indicate that global biobased plastics production capacity will double from 2.31 million tonnes in 2025 to about 4.69 million tonnes by 2030 reflecting rising demand and emergence of ever more advanced applications and products.
Material development and diversification
Bioplastic alternatives exist for almost every conventional plastic material and corresponding application. Due to a strong global development of biobased and biodegradable polymers, such as polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) and polylactic acid (PLA), polypropylene (bioPP) as well as a steady growth of polyethylene (bioPE), the production capacities will continue to increase significantly within the next 5 years.
In Europe (EU27+3), bioplastics growth mainly lies in large additional polypropylene (bioPP), polyethylene (bioPE) and polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) capacities expected.
Applications and market segments
Bioplastics are used for an increasing variety of applications, ranging from packaging and fibres to consumer goods, automotive, and agricultural products. Packaging remains the largest market segment for bioplastics with 41.3 percent (0.95 million tonnes) of the total bioplastics market in 2025, although this share is lower than in 2024. In contrast, the automotive & transport application has grown to 0.24 million tonnes and now accounts for 10.3% of applications.
Global bioplastics production at 72% of capacity in 2025
Although varying in some parts quite significantly from one polymer to another, ranging from 28% to 100%, the comparison between the production capacities and actual production in 2025 shows that the bioplastics industry is currently producing at an average of 72% of global capacity (1.67 million tonnes production vs. 2.31 million tonnes production capacities). The European biobased bioplastics industry is producing at an average of 73% of capacity.
About this market data update
The market data update 2025 has been compiled in cooperation with the market experts of the nova-Institute (Hürth, Germany). The market data graphs are available for download on www.european-bioplastics.org/news/publications/
*World plastics production 2024, Plastics Europe, 2025.