PCEP, SCS and EUMEPS join cross-polymer initiative PolyREC to monitor, verify and report on Europe’s recycled plastic flows
The non-profit association PolyREC announced that the value chain initiatives Polyolefin Circular Economy Platform (PCEP), Styrenics Circular Solutions (SCS) and European Manufacturers of Expanded Polystyrene (EUMEPS) have joined members Petcore Europe, PlasticsEurope, Plastics Recyclers Europe, and VinylPlus to support the setup of a harmonised, pan-European data collection system for both, plastics recyclers and converters, to record their recycling volumes and use of recycled material. PolyREC brings together data collection knowledge and expertise from Europe’s plastics manufacturers and recyclers as well as the full Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), Polyester (PET), Polyolefin (PO), Polystyrene (PS) and Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) value chains. Such expanded industry representation will ensure the recorded recycled plastics data is comprehensive, consistent and comparable across polymers and sectors.
Venetia Spencer, Secretary General of PCEP, commented: “Joining PolyREC and co-creating a polyolefin (PO) branch for RecoTraceTM is an important contribution to PCEP’s circular polyolefin mission and fulfils our commitment as a Circular Plastics Alliance signatory to establish a transparent and trusted monitoring system that ensures traceability of recycled plastics. Recording real world circularity of PO also allows us to monitor progress towards the ambitious commitments of the polyolefin industry to increase the uptake of recycled post-consumer PO.” She continued: “Data plays a central role in the circular economy, accelerating uptake of quality secondary raw materials by establishing trust throughout the system. We all need improved metrics to monitor progress towards circularity, to underpin investment decisions and to support compliance with current and future policies. PCEP is pleased to have joined this partnership to enable recyclers and users of recycled PO with an easy-to-use database to deliver these improved metrics. We welcome more members to accelerate progress together.”
Jens Kathmann, Secretary-General of Styrenics Circular Solutions, added: “Styrenics Circular Solutions is delighted to join PolyREC. This initiative is crucial in monitoring, verifying and reporting plastics recycling via RecoTraceTM, the innovative common data collection system. The styrenics value chain is fully behind this drive to ensure traceability, transparency, and trust in recycled materials, especially within the context of meeting the objectives of the Circular Plastics Alliance (CPA) and supporting the EU’s 2025 recycling targets with verified recycled materials.”
Jürgen Lang, Managing Director of EUMEPS, concluded: “Today is a great day for EUMEPS. Our accession to PolyREC makes me very happy as it is a big step forward towards more transparency. The system will help us to showcase that EPS is already widely collected and recycled, far beyond what is generally recognized. Joining PolyREC will allow our sector to collect more data and to improve recycling rates even more. The verified and monitored set of data will enable us to improve existing recycling schemes and better trace waste streams.”
PolyREC and its members encourage contribution of data from all companies involved in the recycling and use of recycled material to help establish the most robust overview possible of the European recycled plastics market.
