Switzerland: PET collection volume in 2020 was 1.6% below previous year’s level
As can be seen from the 2020 annual report of the PET Recycling Schweiz association, 47,619t of PET bottles were collected by the system of the Swiss association. This corresponds to 769t or 1.6% less than in the previous year.
The collection volume of the traders, bottlers and importers obliged to collect remained almost unchanged in 2020 at 26,015t. While the volume of PET beverage bottles collected by retailers increased by 3% to 22,200t as a result of the lockdown and the home office obligation, the volume collected by bottlers/importers fell by 18% to 3,815t, mainly due to the lack of catering and event supplies. The impact of the pandemic measures on voluntary collectors was even more significant. Particularly in the work/leisure sector (collections in offices, schools, sports facilities, etc.) there was a marked decline in the amount collected by 23%.
In the wake of lower sales and weaker collection, sorting output also fell by 297t or 0.8% and totalled 39,115t at the end of the year. Since larger stocks could still be processed at the end of the year, the sorting output was slightly higher than the collection output. It is encouraging that thanks to modern sorting technology, a total of 557t (about 2%) more food-grade material could be sorted out, while the coloured fractions decreased by 854t (about 7%).
Last year, a total of 35,399t of PET were recycled, 298t or 0.8% less than in the previous year. Since sales fell by roughly the same amount, this will result in a comparable recycling rate to the previous year.
The new postal collection service was successfully tested regionally in 2019 and has been introduced throughout Switzerland on September 1, 2020. The collection has got off to a good start, and participation is in line with PET Recycling Schweiz’ expectations. Collection volume was just over 2,800kg.
The use of rPET as a raw material for new PET bottles has finally become established in 2020. This is demonstrated on the one hand by the various beverage bottle launches with up to 100% rPET content and on the other hand by the total increase in sales of rPET granulate by over 50% to more than 12,500t. This means an average rPET content per bottle of just under 30%, which already exceeds the 25% share required by the EU by 2025. The bottlers’ order intentions expressed at the beginning of the year even gave rise to hopes of even higher rPET sales. Unfortunately, these high expectations were not quite fulfilled, due to the negative Covid 19 influences, these high expectations could not quite be fulfilled.
