PETpla.net Insider 03 / 2021

EDITOUR PETplanet Insider Vol. 22 No. 03/21 www.petpla.net 16 PETcast In our new Road Show podcast, PETplanet meets industry experts from Down Under to Japan and talks with them about their successes, decisions and current developments. Listen to the full conversation at www.bit.ly/2HVwbAd OECD. Life expectancy for women is 87 years and 81 years for men. The industry is responding to this trend with smaller quantities and packag- ing for seniors as well as user-friendly handling. Recycling Since plastic packaging is common in Japan, it is also one of the leading countries to generate plas- tic waste. While China remains the largest generator of plastic packag- ing waste worldwide, the USA is the largest generator of plastic packaging waste per capita. As published in the UN report, this is followed by Japan and the EU. To simplify the recycling of post- consumer packaging materials, the Japanese population is accustomed to carrying out pre-sorting. PET bot- tles, glass, paper and aluminium are collected separately. The incineration rate for the remaining waste is over 70 per cent, while waste disposal at land- fills is shrinking due to low remaining capacities. Japan is a successful example of PET bottle recycling. 1995 saw the introduction of the Containers and Packaging Recycling Law (CPRL) by the Ministry of the Environment to promote the collection and recycling of containers and packaging waste; according to the Japan Soft Drinks Association JSDA, these account for around 60 per cent of household waste by volume. Containers that are subject to this sorted collection are glass and PET bottles, other plastic containers, paper containers and packaging, and aluminium and steel cans as well as paper packaging and cardboard. Responsibilities are clearly regu- lated in the CPRL: besides the sorting guidelines for consumers, it is stipu- lated that the sorted waste is then col- lected by the municipalities and stored for collecting by the recycling com- panies. Manufacturers and business organisations using containers and packages have to pay a recycling fee to the JCPRA in accordance with the volume they manufacture or sell. Each year recycling business organisations are selected by a public bid in every local municipality where a waste stor- age site is located. They are assigned to collect and transport the waste from the storage sites to recycling facilities. To make sure the waste is recycled, these recycling business organisations receive payment only after showing a delivery report that has been signed by the recipient of the recycled products. If an item has been disposed of improperly, a large red warning sticker is put on the offending rubbish bag to shame the person responsible. Rising bottle-to-bottle rates In the early 2000s, the recycling material from post-consumer PET bot- tles still flowed mainly into the pro- duction of sheets and fibres but since 2010, bottle-to-bottle has risen sharply. According to the CPBR, 27,100 t of recycled PET flakes from PET bottles went into bottle-to-bottle recycling in 2012; by 2013 it was 40,300 t and in 2017, 61,300 t. A small dip in the recy- cling balance is to be expected in 2020 due to the pandemic, but overall Japan is showing an upward trend in bottle- to-bottle recycling. One by one, large companies like distributors and trading companies are entering the PET bottle recycling business. In the PET bottle market, mechanical recycling for rPET for B2B is expected to reach 320,000 t per annum by 2022; chemical recycling is also being undertaken for B2B by brand owners. Manufacturers are already on course to make this a success. Put together in 2016, the Voluntary Design Guidelines for Designated PET Bottles cover a collection of points that, when implemented, should enable a smooth recycling process. These include aspects of the bottles (non-coloured PET, no direct printing, no base cups), the labels (separation by gravity when recycling, inks not transferring to PET, shrink sleeves with perforation etc.) or closures which are made mainly of PE/ PP with a specific gravity less than 1.0. And Japan has raised the bar even further: in November 2018, The Plastic Resource Reclamation Declaration was published by the Japan Soft Drink Association together with soft-drink manufacturers and other industry groups. Its declared goal is to achieve 100% effective utilisation of PET bot- tles by 2030. Sources: AHK, Euromonitor, Japan Containers & Packaging Recycling Association, CPBR, Japan Soft Drinks Association,JPIF, Statista, UN Report, World Bank, Yano Research Institute et al. photo courtesy: Suntory