Plastic is a widely used material for our today's society as well as for a variety of applications and this is continuously increasing due to advances in engineering and research. Waste management must also react on this progress because plastics make an essential amount of total volume of waste and because of their qualities (density, stability and caloric value) they are suitable on the one hand for recycling material and on the other hand for energy recycling. In this Master Thesis potentials for selected plastics (PE, PP and PS) are analysed on the basis of plastic waste fractions available on the market and the amounts demanded by recyclers. Plastic flows are considered for a global, Western European (including Austria) and country-specific point of view (Austria and Romania). Material flow analyses indicate the plastic ways from origin to disposal. The production of plastics compared with the demand shows the growth of the current and future market. The analyses elucidate the recycling paths of plastic waste and reveal that due to their different lifespan some products are still in use while others have already been discarded. Additionally, the price trend of the "post-user" plastic waste and process plastic waste is presented to estimate the monetary developments of these waste groups. Finally, two successfully implemented collection systems (ARA and Dual system) are discussed.