Toward the circular economy in PET packaging

Chinaplas, Uhde Inventa-Fischer, Hall 7.2 Booth K25 Market and societal pressures are driving the plastic packaging industry towards a real circular economy (CE). How can the competing interests be met that plastic producers – of PET resin in particular – are challenging?

The tightening of European and German legislation, which sets high targets for the recycling of packaging material, is a recent manifestation of increased public awareness on packaging. The German law, passed in March 2017, requires that the recycling rate for plastic packaging in the dual system must rise from 36% in 2017 to 58% in 2019 and go on to reach 63% by 2022.

The global collection rate of PET reached 55% in 2017 (see diagram 2), with some local collection systems achieving over 90%. The total PET collected is expected to reach 12m?t in 2017. However, recyclate content in PET packaging is around six to seven per cent globally; with local exceptions, such as approximately 24% in Germany. A major portion of collected, used PET bottles end up as feed to staple fibre production; effectively, a down-cycle of valuable packaging material.

The key question is: how can the rPET content in PET packaging be increased, to achieve real recycling, rather than down-cycling?

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