PETpla.net Insider 04 / 2018

MATERIALS / RECYCLING PET planet Insider Vol. 19 No. 04/18 www.petpla.net 19 at Logoplaste fully agreed with Ana during his presentation on PET bottles. For Paulo “design for recycling is key in a circular economy”. At the conclusion of day one, Casper van den Dungen and Herbert Snell from Plastics Recyclers Europe (PRE) gave their view on PET recy- cling. The two experts emphasised the importance of optimising the value of collectables. To achieve this optimisa- tion PRE will focus on collecting, sorting and recycling standards. Casper ended the presentation with a call to the entire industry: “Don’t ask what PET can do for you but ask what you can do for PET.” The second day of the confer- ence began where the first left off: with a room full of representatives from the PET value chain - ready for the morn- ing session on the European Circular Economy. Eline Boon from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation presented the “new plastics economy”. According to Eline there is “a global momentum to rethink the plastics system”. However, it is not about “doing without plastics, but doing things differently”: “We need a new plastics economy where packaging never turns into waste.” One highlight of this year’s con- ference was the presentation of the EU Plastics Strategy by Eric Liégoise from the European Commission - DG GROW, who emphasised that there is finally a concrete strategy on the table for plastics in the circular economy: “Our plan should bring not only eco- nomic but also social and environmen- tal growth while boosting the competi- tiveness of Europe’s plastics industry.” The presentation stressed the fact that an industrial commitment to use more recycled plastics as well as global action is essential. After explaining the strategy developed in detail by the EC, Eric Liégoise took the time to thank Petcore Europe for its voluntary com- mitment to 65% recycling and reuse of PET packaging material collected by 2030. Trends and solutions in PET collection and recycling After an informative Q&A session, the focus of the conference shifted to trends and solutions in the PET post- consumer collection. First, Gian de Belder from Procter & Gamble pre- sented the Holy Grail project on mark- ers and digital watermarks. Gian gave an interesting overview of the five pillars for a circular economy: design for recy- cling, access to collection, participation/ education, separation and product inno- vation. Gian was followed by Clarissa Morawski from Reloop, who compared deposit versus non-deposit collection. Even though there are still many issues with post-consumer waste collection, Clarissa sees a positive development: “I have seen more activity from the indus- try and governments in the past year than in the previous 20 years.” The last presentation of the col- lection focused session was delivered by Carlos de los Llanos and Vincent Colard from CITEO and focused on the development of opaque PET bot- tles and PET thermoforms collection in France. To introduce the topic of PET post-consumer collection, Antonio Furfari from PRE gave his presenta- tion on design for recycling. Antonino presented RecyClass, an online tool that ranks the recyclability of a plas- tic package, as well as the European PET Bottle Platform (EPBP) providing design guidelines for recyclability. After Antonino’s introduction, Fran- cois Lagrue, plant manager at Wellman gave an overview of the state of the art in the collection, sorting and recycling technologies of PET thermoforms. Even though the recyclers face a number of problems in this area Francois is more than positive about the future: “The PET bottle recycling is a success story, but it did not happen with a click of the fingers. It needed some time, as it will still need some time for the thermoforms. If the entire value chain works together we will have another success story around PET.” DuPont, for example, is already working on solu- tions to increase the recyclability of PET thermoforms. Heiko Schenck presented the challenges the company and indus- try are facing, and more importantly, possible solutions to overcome these challenges. Full body sleeves on PET bottles represent another challenge for recyclers. An Vossen gave an exciting overview of the current situation and presented a possible solution: easily removable labels as well as end-con- sumer education and engagement. Chemical or back-to-monomer recycling The last session of this year’s Pet- core Europe Conference focused on chemical recycling which was gen- erally seen as one of the long-term solutions for a circular economy. Wim Hoenderdaal from Indorama Ventures Europe kicked off the session with a general overview and stressed the following points: Chemical recycling is complementary to mechanical recy- cling and should recycle PET thermo- forms, opaque bottles and other difficult to recycle PET products. The whole supply chain needs to invest and bridge the initial higher cost associated with the development and up-scaling of the new technologies. For Wim, chemi- cally recycled or as he calls it “circular PET feels like a dream that is close to reality.” After Wim’s introduction, Martin Ste- phan from Carbios and Maurizio Crippa from gr3n presented two chemical recycling projects in detail to conclude the second day of the conference. Whereas the project of Carbios relies on enzymes to rethink the lifecycle of plastics, the EU funded project Demeto with the technology of gr3n uses micro- waves for de-polymerisation. Both projects are in progress at this moment and have to be finalised but they are excellent examples that the PET industry is focusing on further developments and innovation in order to tackle the challenge of the circular economy today. It was not only the final session devoted to chemical recycling but the entire conference was a vivid dem- onstration of why it is so vital to bring together every year all the players in the PET value chain for the annual meeting - to take the PET industry on to the next stage. www.petcore-europe.org Wim Hoenderdaal states: “Circular PET feels like a dream that is close to reality!”