PETpla.net Insider 06 / 2021

imprint EDITORIAL PUBLISHER Alexander Büchler, Managing Director HEAD OFFICE heidelberg business media GmbH Vangerowstraße 33 69115 Heidelberg, Germany phone: +49 6221-65108-0 fax: +49 6221-65108-28 info@hbmedia.net EDITORIAL Kay Barton Heike Fischer Gabriele Kosmehl Michael Maruschke Ruari McCallion Waldemar Schmitke Anthony Withers WikiPETia.info petplanet@hbmedia.net MEDIA CONSULTANTS Martina Hirschmann hirschmann@hbmedia.net Johann Lange-Brock lange-brock@hbmedia.net phone: +49 6221-65108-0 fax: +49 6221-65108-28 LAYOUT AND PREPRESS EXPRIM Werbeagentur | exprim.de Matthias Gaumann READER SERVICES Till Kretner reader@hbmedia.net PRINT Chroma Druck Eine Unternehmung der Limberg-Druck GmbH Danziger Platz 6 67059 Ludwigshafen, Germany WWW www.hbmedia.net | w ww.petpla.net PETplanet Insider ISSN 1438-9459 is published 10 times a year. This publication is sent to qualified subscribers (1-year subscription 149 EUR, 2-year subscription 289 EUR, Young professionals’ sub- scription 99 EUR. Magazines will be dispatched to you by airmail). Not to be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher. Note: The fact that product names may not be identified as trademarks is not an indication that such names are not registered trademarks. 3 PETplanet Insider Vol. 22 No. 06/21 www.petpla.net Dear readers, It feels like two out of three messages that land in our editorial office revolve around rPET. While the multibrands have had bottles with a significant proportion of rPET on the market for a number of years, we are also getting more and more reports from regional suppliers. For example, Eckes- Granini, the German high-end brand for juices, has announced that it will increase the proportion of rPET used since 2018 from 25% to 100%. “We want to be a pioneer as regards the circular economy and set a good example for the beverage industry,” states Hermann Naumann, plant manager for Eckes-Granini. Together with his machinery supplier, he has adapted production to handle the increased proportion of rPET (see page 31). In Slovenia, too, the mineral water bottler Donat, together with its preform supplier, has switched to 100% rPET. Since water bottles in Slovenia are traditionally green, the supplier has set up an extra green-to-green recycling process (see page 43). The question remains where all of the rPET is to come from. Should the trend towards very high rPET proportions prevail, well above the EU requirements of 25 or 30%, the ability to deliver will become even more difficult. Helen McGeough, Icis Senior Analyst & Global Analyst summarised this at the Icis recycling conference at the end of April (see page 39): “If we were to achieve a 50% recycled content rate in PET globally, growth rates need to be 82% per annum in comparison to 2020. This is equivalent to an additional 1,800 recycling plants with an average of 25,000 t capacity.“ Where these recycling plants might come from is a matter of debate. Yours sincerely, Alexander Büchler