Sustainable Plastics - May/June 2022 - 17

recycling
A competitive plastics
industry in Europe? The
answer is recycled content
With the growing trend towards making plastic circular, recycled polymers are
continuing to take market share from their virgin counterparts in the European
market. Although this trend is on the rise, the use of recycled materials in new
articles faces some constraints. By Emilia Tarlowska, Plastics Recyclers Europe.
W
ith approximately
7% of
the demand for
recycled plastic
from the converting sector,
there is definitely room for improvement.
Recycled polymers
are widely used in packaging
(61%), which remains their biggest
market. Nevertheless, new
sectors and applications are
opening up. That is the case for
building and construction products
or electronic and automotive
sectors, for example.
Circular business
models
The good news is that circular
business models are on
the rise. Initiatives like Circular
Plastics Alliance (CPA) are
helping to incentivise them.
CPA boosted the voluntary
commitments and targets of
the different industry actors,
which will contribute toward
the uptake of 10 million tons of
recycled plastic in Europe by
2025. These commitments cover
a range of different actions,
including increasing recyclability
- with the retailers, converters
and brand owners being
now, more than ever before,
focused on the integration of
the recycled polymers in their
products.
Legislative framework:
the incentive
Robust legislation plays a
crucial role in improving plastic
waste management and
boosting the use of recycled
plastic. The objectives stemming
from the Plastic Strategy,
Emilia Tarlowska
including the new Single-Use
Plastics Directive (SUPD) as a
good example here, like recycled-content
targets for beverage
bottles, with a minimum
recycled polymers inclusion of
25% in mineral and soft drink
bottles by 2025 and 30% by
2030, introduced by SUPD,
have increasingly driven demand
for food-contact recyclate.
This
is visible, on one hand, in
the high demand for these materials,
where the share of foodgrade
recycled PET in PET beverage
bottle production is set to
continue to grow rapidly, and on
the other, in the growing investments
in recycling capacities.
There is undoubtedly a steady
move towards the circularity of
the PET industry in Europe.
And new regulations that
will further the sustainable production
of plastics are being
worked on as we speak. For
example, the current revision of
the Packaging and Packaging
Waste Directive looks into introducing
design for recycling
along with mandatory
recycled content for
a wider set of plastic
products. Meanwhile,
the reshaping of the
Waste Framework Directive
targets a deep
dive into separate collection
measures and
wider harmonisation.
The objective of
improving plastic production
is covered as
well within the Sustainable
Products Initiative,
whose goal is to
significantly improve
circularity, energy
performance and other
environmental and
sustainability aspects of products
on the EU market. One of
the key goals of this document
is to introduce mandatory recycled
content for a wider set
of plastic products. Since polymers
are most widely used in
non-food applications today,
looking at other applications
than packaging, this revision is
necessary to boost the market
for recycled materials.
Uptake of recyclates: the
full potential
With the Single-Use Plastic Directive
and the 50% recycling
targets, Europe in 2025 will see
the most comprehensive legislation
on plastic in the world
fully operational. However, the
positive effects of these measures
are visible already now.
For example, the new study
for collection, recycling capacity
and production of PET
for 2020 shows increases - in
comparison to 2018 with the
majority of the new capacities
which have been recently installed
being the decontamination
lines to convert the washed
bottles or trays to food-grade
pellets. Equally the flexible film
recycling capacity grew by almost
10% in a year despite the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Although these are positive
developments, there are still
some constraints to achieving
the EU targets. The first is the
collection of material needed
to hit the targets, both the
SUPD one as well as the 55%
plastic packaging recycling
target by 2030.
For PET, specifically, the
separate collection will play a
key role to provide enough recycled
PET food-grade pellets
together with the growing capacities
required to reprocess
this material.
In parallel, the quality of plastic
products that are put on the
market must improve. This can
be achieved by implementing
the design for recycling principles
to match the qualities and
specifications needed in a variety
of sectors and especially the
high-end applications.
The move towards circular
plastic products can be reached
when combining increased
separate collection with recyclability
of plastic products and
a supportive legislative framework
to, additionally, drive the
necessary investments.
The recent positive changes
in the market are cause for
optimism when it comes to
the uptake of recycled plastics.
The commitment of recyclers
is clear - while much work
remains ahead, the past successes
are the foundation upon
which the circular plastics' future
can be built.
May/June 2022
17
Sustainable Plastics - May/June 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sustainable Plastics - May/June 2022
