PETpla.net Insider 05 / 2021

PET news 6 NEWS PETplanet Insider Vol. 22 No. 05/21 www.petpla.net “Waste4Future” paves new ways for plastics recycling Asustainable society with climate-neutral processes requires significant adjustments in the value chains. Seven Fraunhofer Institutes are pooling their expertise in the lighthouse project “Waste4Future” to develop new solutions for this goal, from the raw material base to material flows and process engineering right to the end of a product’s life cycle. In particular, they want to increase energy and resource efficiency in the use of plastics and thus pave the way for a chemical industry that requires fewer fossil raw materials and produces fewer emissions. The carbon contained in plastics is an important resource for the chemical industry. If it is possible to better identify such carbon-containing components in waste, to recycle them more effectively, and to use them again to produce high-quality raw materials for industry, the carbon can be kept in the cycle. This not only reduces the need for fossil resources, but also pollution with CO 2 emissions and plastic waste. At the same time, the security of supply for industry is improved because an additional source of carbon is tapped. The “Waste4Future” lighthouse project therefore aims to create new opportunities for recycling plastics in order to make the carbon they contain available as a “green” resource for the chemical industry. The outcome of the project, which will run until the end of 2023, is expected to be innovative recycling technologies for complex waste that can be used to obtain high-quality recyclates. Specifically, the development of a holistic, entropy-based assessment model is planned (entropy = measure of the disor- der of a system), which will reorganise the recycling chain from process-guided to material-guided. A new type of sorting identi- fies which materials and in particular which plastic fractions are contained in the waste. Based on this analysis, the total stream is separated and a targeted decision is then made for the resulting sub-streams as to which recycling route is the most technically, ecologically and economically sensible for this specific waste quantity. What cannot be further utilised by means of mechani- cal recycling is available for chemical recycling, always with the aim of preserving the maximum possible amount of carbon compounds. Burning waste containing plastics at the end of the chain is thus eliminated. www.waste4future.fraunhofer.de World Packaging Organisation joins forces with members to create ‘WPO Packaging Database’ WPO (World Packaging Organisation) recently announced the creation of a ‘WPO Packaging Database’ that will contain global data such as regulations, safety, technology, sustain- ability, etc. all related to the packaging industry. “We have decided to take a step-by-step approach to collect important global packaging information. This is a project we have had in our agenda for a number of years but always lacked the resources”, states WPO President, Pierre Pienaar. “But thanks to WPO longstanding Chinese Board members, CPF (China Packaging Federation) and CEPI (China National Export Commodities Packaging Research Institute), we decided to join forces and offered to undertake such a venture along with the guidance of the WPO Executive team.” Pierre adds: “Due to this being in an infant stage and both parties in a learning phase, the intention is to com- mence ‘slowly and small’. We have discussed how this will possibly look initially and what we foresee over the next 3-5 years. Although we discussed global data such as regula- tions, safety, technology, sustainability, etc. we have decided to begin with simple but important global packaging market information.” The first topic to be explored in ‘WPO Packag- ing Database’ is the size of the packaging industry in WPO members´ countries. All the collected information will be displayed in the WPO platform database administered by CPF/CEPI where virtual address will be announced soon. www.worldpackaging.org www.cpf.org.cn www.pack-envi.com Company name revealed as Coca- Cola European Partners’ acquisition of Coca-Cola Amatil nears completion Coca-Cola Europacific Partners will be the name of the company as Coca-Cola Amatil (Amatil) and Coca-Cola Euro- pean Partners (CCEP) join together following completion of the acquisition in May. Coca-Cola Europacific Partners will be the world’s largest Coca-Cola bottler and one of the leading FMCG companies in the world. The company will employ over 33,000 people, serving approximately 2 million customers in 26 countries. The proposed acquisition of Coca-Cola Amatil was announced in October 2020, and was approved by Ama- til’s shareholders on 16 April 2021. Following the completion of the acquisition in May, the new company name will come into use. The company will continue to be listed on Euronext Amsterdam, the New York Stock Exchange, London Stock Exchange and on the Spanish Stock Exchanges, and will continue to trade under the symbol CCEP. www.cocacolaep.com The Petcore Europe Conference 2021 “Post Covid-19 - Strategy and Trends for the Circular PET Economy”: Petcore Europe is pleased to announce its annual conference from 2-3 June 2021 that will be held via virtual event platform. The first day will focus on perspectives and strategy for the PET value chain with presentations by the EU Commission and other trade focused experts. The second day is dedicated to trends in PET Collection, Sorting, Recycling and Circularity. Attendees will still be able to network thanks to a “Virtual Networking Room “, but they will also be able to visit “Virtual Exhibition booth”. Registration is already open. Find all information on topic and speakers at: www.petcore-europe.org/annual-conference-petcore- europe-conference/304-save-date-register-now-petcore- europe-conference-2021.html