PETpla.net Insider 11+12 / 2017

MATERIALS / RECYCLING PET planet Insider Vol. 18 No. 11+12/17 www.petpla.net 14 Key issue: “Made in China 2025” The PET recycling industry in China: Between fire and ice by Ulrich Thiele The thirteenth issue of the ”Recycled Polyester and PET Packaging Conference and Exhibition”, organised by the China Chemical & Fiber Economic Information Network and Dr Thiele Polyester Technology took place this year September 6 th – 8 th in Shanghai, China. Despite severe hurdles, such as the ongoing low polyester virgin prices, low facilitation rates and increasing governmental activities toward stringent regulation of plastic waste import, some 300 participants and exhibition visitors from China and abroad expressed their unbroken interest in our industry. Besides technical presentations, the conference program of this year was dominated by the key issue “Made in China 2025” followed by reports about progress in polyester textile recycling and several market analyses. Li Hongliang, Researcher, Energy Saving and Comprehensive Utilisation Department of the Ministry of Indus- try and Information Technology (MIIT) spoke about “Interpretation on related policies for comprehensive utilisa- tion of waste textiles in China”. With the slogan “Made in China 2025” the Chinese government is implementing and supporting a bundle of activities to renew development of the industry. After years of intensive investigation the Chinese government is to release stringent rules to improve the indus- try development in general, focusing especially on solving the environmental problems of the country. “Made in China 2025” includes green processes, technologies, prod- ucts and applications. On the subject of waste treatment and recycling, the MIIT defined development goals for eight areas, namely paper, plastics, rubber, steel, cars, electronics, waste mineral oils and textile products. Within these waste categories, the MIIT has formulated the following development targets: a standardisation of produc- tion technologies, an improvement in facilitation rates/running rates, an implementation of green developments and an emphasis on energy saving and environmental protection. One important part of “Made in China 2025” is expected to be a gen- eral and complete ban on the import of all kind of waste materials. As far as PET recycling is concerned this general ban will include waste bottles, PET bottle flakes and all other kinds of PET waste. The Chinese govern- ment will publish detailed implement- ing regulations by the end of 2017. It was indicated that the government might grant, for a transition period, a limited number of import licences to companies which still fulfil the above listed development goals. During the entire conference, it was apparent how seriously this new movement was being taken because all internal dis- cussions revolved around the impact of the new policy on the industry and market participants. The possible practical conse- quences of the new waste import rules were graphically outlined by Cao Weidong, Chairman of the Board, Zhejiang Huafei Recycling Resources Co. Ltd. with his presentation: “Win- win Cooperation for the rPET Industry in the era of significant change.” He laid out a series of ideas and possible practical actions to resist or overcome the effects of the new import policy. He defined the current situation of the PET recycling industry in China “between fire and ice”. At present no clear guidelines have been released, his proposals covered a wide range including the following:  Increase in sales, production capacity and speciality products  Integration of the whole recycling cycle from bottle collection, via flake production to production of filaments, fibres and final apparel goods within one enterprise  Business optimisation by lean man- agement  Differentiation in specialities  Or: abandon completely the Chi- nese market and seek other Asian markets such as Japan, Malay- sia, Thailand or Philippines – in other words any Asian country with a stable political and economic system. Putting to one side all possi- ble negative impacts to the single entrepreneur or recycling company, Cao Weidong liked the idea that the government will strengthen the rPET industry to force market participants into cooperation, deeper integration, specialisation and intelligent waste collection. And, obviously, he hoped that the struggle of the recycling industry will help change sentiment in the government. Kurt Pichelmann , Sales Manager of Erema GmbH and David Hehen- berger, Product Manager of Next Generation Recycling Machinery GmbH reported on their companies’ further developments of re-pelletising RECYCLING S P E C I A L