PETpla.net Insider 04 / 2019

MATERIALS / RECYCLING PET planet Insider Vol. 20 No. 04/19 www.petpla.net 24 Chemical recycling will not replace but complement mechanical recycling and will facilitate the recycling of PET ther- moforms, opaque bottles and other difficult to recycle PET products. After Wim’s introduction, Martin Stephan from Carbios, Marco Brons from Cumapol, Frederic Favre from IFP Energies Nouvelles and Nelson Switzer from Loop Industries pre- sented their companies’ chemi- cal recycling projects in detail and answered the questions from the audi- ence in a panel debate to end a highly successful conference. Carbios announced shortly after the Petcore conference in Brussels it has successfully produced the first PET bottles made with 100% Puri- fied Terephthalic Acid (rPTA), through the enzymatic biorecycling of plas- tic waste. The company states that this milestone is a world-first, and confirms the potential of the technol- ogy to engage the whole industry in a responsible transition towards a circular economy. Alain Marty, Chief Scientific Officer at Carbios, com- ments, “We have successfully devel- oped the first biological process with which all kinds of PET plastic waste can be broken down into its original components and reused to produce virgin plastic products for applications such as PET bottles. This new step shows the strong potential of Carbios’ enzymatic technology and provides a solution to help solve society’s grow- ing waste problem.” Previously, Carbios demonstrated that its proprietary biorecycling technol- ogy, based on the use of bioengineered enzymes, had the ability to turn PET plastic waste back into its original com- ponents at a rate of 97% in 16 hours. It had also demonstrated that virgin PET can be made with 100% rPTA via its proprietary biorecycling process, which uses all kinds of post-consumer PET plastic bottles (clear, coloured, opaque, complex). By demonstrating now that 100% rPTA can be used to produce PET bottles that match brand and cus- tomer requirements, this technology proves to be a potential game-changer in the transition towards a circular econ- omy that will benefit the environment and future generations. By decoupling the production of new plastic bottles from petrochemical feedstock and making waste collection economically more viable, the technology is intended to offer a sustainable and efficient solu- tion to change the way some of the most commonly used plastic products are produced. Jean-Claude Lumaret, CEO of Carbios, adds, “The plastics industry faces fundamental challenges related to sustainability. Our technol- ogy, based on a circular model, reuses resources rather than consuming them. This new milestone takes us one step closer to bringing our technology to the market. With the construction of our demonstration plant to start later this year, we’re aiming to engage the whole plastics industry in a transition towards a circular economy and take a leader- ship role as a global license provider for the biorecycling of PET plastics and fibres.” www.petcore-europe.org At the Petcore conference we met Mr Christoph Thünemann, Group Director in Communications and Marketing at Bericap: PETplanet: Mr Thünemann, this was your first Petcore conference with Beri- cap. What were your reasons for partici- pating? What was your special interest from a cap producer’s point of view? Thünemann: We see ourselves as partners of our customers who are manufacturers / brand owners as well as bottlers / converters. In order to act in a spirit of partnership and to add value - both technically and economically - for our custom- ers, we constantly optimise the value chain. As a self-understanding of our service philosophy, it is important to gain a thorough understanding of trends, challenges and solutions in industries and our business environ- ment. For me it makes sense to enter into dialogue with our partners at one of the leading European congresses on PET. Although we were already in very close personal contact with govern- ment officials on the EU Single Use Plastics (SUP) Directive, the impli- cations of this for the entire bever- age industry require a continuous exchange of information and ideas. The comments on the planned SUP were therefore very informative and helpful for me personally. We were also able to obtain confirmation that the tethered caps solutions Bericap has developed meet all the required expectations and requirements. PETplanet: Where do you see future challenges in the PET market? Thünemann: I see as one of the major challenges in the PET market the further optimisation of lifecycle pro- cesses for beverage bottles & closures. Deposit system for returnable and recycling bottles should be established in as many countries as possible, and hopefully similarly high return rates are achieved like with the German model. We are following the further develop- ment with great attention. PETplanet: The PET industry is currently making great efforts to make the required amount of recycled PET available to the market. Closures are usually made of PP or HDPE - is it a future topic for Bericap recycled mate- rial to be used in closure production? Thünemann: At Bericap we follow the Reduce, Reuse and Recycle approach. That is why we have been very active and successful in the last years for the weight reduction of clo- sures and necks. With this approach, we have succeeded holistically in saving more than 50% of weight from PCO 1810 to 26/22. Therefore, the optimised use of materials is the first step in environmental protection. We just launched a project to meet our customer’s objective to manufac- Recycling Special