PETpla.net Insider 01+02 / 2020

TRADE SHOW REVIEW PET planet Insider Vol. 21 No. 01+02/20 www.petpla.net 34 tory recycled content in PET bottles will be the biggest game changer!” To fulfil the target of 25% rPET content in 2025, use of food grade rPET must more than triple. Across Europe, 37 further food grade rPET units with an output capacity of 20kt/y are required to provide enough rPET to meet bottle market demands, but this assumes the bottle sector has complete access to total rPET supplies where other packaging markets compete for those supplies. To fulfil the ambitious target of 30% by 2030, a 4.5-fold increase must be achieved. Work must also be done providing post-consumer bottles, as the analyst explained further: meeting the SUP targets requires an annual increase in collection of 4-7%. McGeough summarised that these numbers reflect the differences in systems, consumer participation and government ability to prioritise invest- ment in waste management. The lack of standardisation in everything from waste infrastructure to final rPET product specifications continues to present as many challenges as oppor- tunities for one of the most devel- oped recycled markets in the plastic industry. In her presentation, Tristanne Davis from the Sustainable Packaging Coalition presented design consid- erations for packaging to improve recycling rates. She addressed the questions ‘How are brands evolving packaging design to support recycla- bility?’, ‘How might we improve the recovery system with recycling marker systems?’ and ‘How can effective labelling help to improve consumer recycling habits?’. As a general for- mula, it is first and foremost important to check that packaging material and format are recyclable. Further aspects should also be checked, such as that the end consumer understands that the product is recyclable and that the product can be sorted easily in the recycling stream. In a panel discussion on opportu- nities for boosting recycling capacity with feedstock recycling, there was an open mic session moderated by Paul Hodges, Chairman, International eChem, that classified the challenges of current recycling solutions: “The problem is that we have just six years to work out how we are going to do it – and there are many challenges to overcome. One challenge is around technology. Mechanical recycling can handle single-layer plastics such as PET, and chemical recycling technolo- gies such as pyrolysis can recycle multi-layer plastics. But they need a lot of development work to operate efficiently. Another challenge is that recycling will change our business models, as the recycling must be done locally to minimise CO 2 emis- sions and create a circular economy. We must start planning now to intro- duce the circular economy, or risk losing all the benefits that plastics provide for society.” On this note, the audience raised the concern of how the European market could be protected from cheaper imported packaging that does not conform to the EU Directives. In this regard, Werner Bosmans held out the prospect of an EU-CO 2 border tax. He then finished with a passionate plea: “Europe is not afraid to be at the front. Plastics pollution is a real issue. We need to do something, and the rest of the world has to follow. There is no other choice.” www.icis.com Upcoming ICIS events: The ‘Asian Recycling & Sus- tainability Conference - Seeking paths and working collaboratively to establish a circular economy road map in Asia’ will get to the bottom of the issues ‘How big is the problem on plastic waste today?’ ‘What strategies are the industry players exploring to create real solutions in tackling these issues?’ ‘How can brand owners, consumers and govern- ment institutions help to promote a sustainable future?’ It will be held on 19 February 2020 in Bangkok, Thailand. The ICIS conference ‘PET Value Chain: Building a posi- tive future - Leading the change towards a sustainable industry with commitments to circularity’ will be held 17-18 March 2020 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. AGR April 21-24, 2020 Hall 2.1 · A05 at the Krones booth German Technology