PETpla.net Insider 06 / 2020

MATERIALS / RECYCLING PETplanet Insider Vol. 21 No. 06/20 www.petpla.net 22 It is time to RE-focus by Lucia Buffoni, Marketing Manager, Repi Group For the plastic industry the year 2020 has been a major deadline for so many projects, pledges, activities at all levels. Goals were ambitious, but time was an ally. Already a couple of years back some goals started to be postponed to 2025, some even to 2030. Recycling Special With no doubt such a complex- ity like the Covid-19 one could not be imagined even remotely. So it happens that this year, that was meant to mark important acceleration of transition to an economy made of plastic alterna- tives have instead underscored that plastic is still the most reliable and affordable solution for personal pro- tection. The pandemic is challenging everyone’s lifestyle, habits and daily life, even of those who are fighting for a reduction when not a ban of plastic. Many sustainability-conscious people may now find themselves with single- use plastic items, such as disposable wipes and sanitary protective devices, but also plastic containers of hand sanitisers up to takeaway food contain- ers and single serve drinks packag- ing. It seems now that not only giving up disposable plastic is not feasible but on the contrary plastic packag- ing the safest choice right now. If we look at the world consumption rates of last quarter, single use packaging is at a record high from north to south and this will last for a while, together with the demand of plastic disposable wipes, gloves, masks, etc. In such a context the best thing we can hope for is to this global black swan occurrence as a renewed push to boost a circular economy of which of course plastic recycling is the best example. Now more than ever the solution seems not to be the substitution of plastic, but a systems-level approach on a global scale to improve its recycling. Let us remain on the concept of “circular economy”. Reaching a “circular economy” means structur- ing economies on the virtuous closed loop of ‘make – use – recycle’ in which every product is designed to be used and then disposed leaving no traces, it means being re-used to generate other products and so on. All good so far but is this really the full picture? I mean if we recall the primary goal of a circular economy, that is to cut CO 2 emissions as main cause of global warming, then the carbon footprint contribution of our activities should be the main driver. Instead, some solutions emerging and defined as 100% recyclable produce actually higher CO 2 emissions than what they are replacing and can’t therefore be sustainable for the future. Looking in particular at the single use packaging sector, plastic packag- ing is the most attacked material and, as a consequence, we see a shift to other raw materials that are not auto- matically more carbon footprint friendly than plastics. This is often an emo- tional answer to social media attacks that could be even more harmful from a system point of view. As an example, replacing a PET bottle with a glass one is not the solution. Glass is defined as 100% recyclable and therefore eco-friendly. A consumer might not realise, however that to produce and recycle that glass bottle a huge quan- tity of energy will be required (melting process goes to temperatures as high as 1,500 °C). On top, logistics costs related to collection, transportation to the recycling site and then all the way back to the market again will have much more negative impact compared with a bottle made of PET. What if we try to let consum- ers learn what’s behind a packaging and why plastics in packaging have become so successful worldwide. The current health emergency is show- ing one of their unparallel advantages offered to consumers: safety. But plas- tic packaging does offer much more: light weight, a PET bottle is lighter than any other packaging and therefore consumers can practically carry their on-the-go snacks and drinks while commuting to job; more-over it hardly breaks, and its logistic is agile and safe all over the world; lastly plastics are highly recyclable (and recycled already) to enter the packaging value chain again or to be used for a number of other applications, not of lower value (textiles as an example). Coming now to the carbon footprint contribution, plastic packaging helps reduce CO 2 emissions, especially when it involves recycling. A recent report of Plastics Europe shows that an increase in the recycling rate of 5mt of plastic packaging would make CO emissions falling by 7mt, correspond- ing to 2,4 million cars less on streets. A PET bottle made of 50% rPET has a lower environmental impact than a glass bottle (be it single use and reus- able) or a tin can. The single use glass bottle is the least environmental unit, even behind aluminium tin which is almost always the runner-up to plastic packaging. Having said that, there are ways to make a plastic packaging even more sustainable. One way can be choosing additives and colours that add perfor- mance and aesthetics while having negligible impact on its recyclabil- ity. This is at the basis of the REFIT concept. Repi as a global colour and additive solutions supplier to the pack- aging industry has recently launched its REFIT vision, that adds a “R” to the three commonly accompanying circular economy statement: reducing, reusing, recycling, REFITting. REFIT means having an all-round approach to carbon footprint con- tribution. Protagonist is the liquid colour and additive technology that can be defined as a low carbon foot- print technology. This can be proven in each step of the liquid lifecycle, as shown in the flowchart. The main reasons behind can be summarised as follows:  Process - the manufacturing pro- cess of a liquid colour/additive is energy efficient since no high temperatures are needed to blend carriers (that are already liquid) with pigments or dyes. Regardless from the specific production cycle, all processes happen at room tem- perature.  Logistics – the high concentra- tion of liquids leads to less space needed for transport and therefore significant CO 2 saving  Stockage of liquids at the custom- er’s site is highly space efficient