PETpla.net Insider 04 / 2019

PET planet Insider Vol. 20 No. 04/19 www.petpla.net Appeal: bottle-to-bottle recycling has to be expanded significantly The recycled material is used in various areas. The most important of these is already the bottle-to-bottle recycling. Almost one third (32.6%) of the recycled PET material is used to produce new PET bottles. Nearly 30% of used beverage packaging goes to the film industry, which processes it into tray packaging for food, for example. More than 20% are used in the textile fibre industry. The remaining material is used in other areas. Schmidt takes stock “The various application areas show that recycled PET material is in great demand as resource. This, however, increases the price. As a result, the demand from non-food sectors makes it dif- ficult for the beverage industry to further increase the share of recycled PET in new beverage bottles. The updated GVM study shows a 26.2% share of recycled material per bottle. Compared to the previous studies (2013: 24%; 2015: 26%), the rate is rising only margin- ally. “Increasing the share of recycled PET material is the goal of the beverage industry,” says Schmidt. The Forum PET therefore welcomes initiatives to increase the recyclate quota in beverage bottles, such as the new target mark of the RAL Gütegemeinschaft Wertstoffkette PET-Getränkeverpackungen. The associ- ation’s aim is for PET bottles with the RAL quality mark to have an average recyclate share of 50% by 2022. For a further expansion of bottle-to-bottle recycling, the market needs further impulses such as increased demand for PET beverage bottles with a high recy- clate share from (discount) supermarket chains, says Schmidt. China import ban on PET bottles not relevant for Germany In the course of the discussion about import restric- tions on plastic waste to China, the GVM study explicitly examines PET exports to the Asian country for the first time. The study shows that only around 3% of used PET bottles were exported from Germany to China even before the import ban. The fact that pictures of PET bottles were frequently shown in the public discussion about China’s import ban is therefore a deception, according to Schmidt. “In fact, China used to import used PET bottles on a large scale to process them into polyester yarns for the textile industry. For many years, however, German recyclers have been building up sufficient recycling capacities in Germany because the recyclable material is also in great demand in the local industry.“ The new GVM study refers to the data from 2017. It examined all relevant beverage segments in the deposit and non-deposit beverage sector. Not included in the analysis were the quantitatively insignificant PET beverage packages for milk, milk mix and milk-based beverages. www.forum-pet.de stf·sorting line stf·washing line professional plastic recycling solutions – made in germany The stf· group is the leading manufacturer of plastic sorting and washing machinery, especially for PET post-consumer bottles, with more than 60 turn-key plants and several single machines delivered worldwide. stf·group Industriestr. 1-3 94529 Aicha v. Wald – Germany fon +49 8544 960-110 mail contact@stf-group.de web www.stf-group.de scan for vCard stf ·group MATERIALS / RECYCLING 41