PETpla.net Insider 06 / 2021

PETplanet Insider Vol. 22 No. 06/21 www.petpla.net 41 TRADE SHOW REVIEW “Post Covid-19 - Strategy and Trends for the Circular PET Economy” Petcore Europe annual conference 2021 part 1 “At Petcore Europe we truly value the essentiality of mutual collaborations and believe that only a comprehensive approach could efficiently straighten the PET industry in this challenging circular economy era. Following the concept of practice what you preach, we success- fully hold our Virtual Annual Conference 2021 over two days, on the 2 nd and 3 rd of June. Moreover, we were pleased to see that we actually succeeded in draw- ing high interest and attention to our event among 185 attendees, 21 speak- ers and policymakers during the whole two days of the conference. In order to guarantee that our virtual Annual Conference could bring a defi- nite significance to all the participants and would enhance a comprehension of the current complexities that our indus- try is facing at the moment, we made an attempt to look at the issues related to the circularity from various angles. By doing so, we tried to create a strategi- cally driven conference, where all the attendees could talk openly and freely about their PET related concerns, and together with the highly experienced speakers could look for some potential solutions within existing bottlenecks. Coming back to the holistic approach, at Petcore Europe, we decided to dedicate the first day of the conference to the perspectives and strategies for the PET value chain with presentations given by Emmanuelle Maincent and Laure Baillargeon from the European Commission, executives from the sector and trade focused experts. While the second day was more techni- cal as regards the trends in PET Collec- tion, Sorting, Recycling and Circularity. Looking back at all the work that has been done, we can acknowledge that the game was worth the candle, and we are definitely looking forward to new challenges that the PET industry might encounter on its arduous path of becoming more recognised as the most circular material.” PETplanet thanked the management team of Petcore for this statement about the conference and Petcore’s invitation to join the two days virtual event. With the topic of “Post Covid-19 - Strategy and Trends for the Circular PET Economy”, the conference gave an overview of the challenges and opportunities for the PET industry. Experts took an analytical look at vari- ous areas of the PET value chain. The first Session “2019 PET Market, Collection & Recycling Rates” started with a presentation by Helen McGeough, Senior Ana- lyst, Plastic Recycling, & Global Analyst Team Lead at Icis , about rPET in Western Europe 2019. She highlighted the lack of harmonisa- tion in collection systems - which produce varied rates across Europe - and she described the impact of Covid-19 on the rPET market. Helen summarised that “traditional” rPET prices have historically linked virgin, flake, and food-grade gran- ule prices. With the announced sustainability goals, a new demand for rPET has been created which cannot be met at the moment. To meet the SUP target by 2025, PET collection growth would need to be 60 per cent. The average growth rate to reach the target in 2029 would be 6 per cent per year. Helen mentioned wider recycled polymer issues created by the pandemic: she saw an impact on collection and sorting during the early phases of the pandemic, and added that test cycles of recycled polymers, espe- cially polyolefins, had been post- poned in 2020 and that concerns about hygiene had led to a return in the use of virgin material. Finally, she added that the consumer focus on sustainability had waned and that the closures of business and indus- try sectors had hit both supply and demand for recycled polymers. In Session 2 “EU Legislation - where are we headed?” Emma- nuelle Maincent from the European Commission focused on the new Plastic Contribution Proposal, which is part of the EU resource system. The Plastic Contribution Proposal is statistically based. It is a contribution proportional to the quantity of plastic packaging waste that is not recycled. There will be a call rate of 0.80 €/kg. It is intended to be used to support the waste strategy, i.e. a 50% recycling target by 2025 and a 55% target by 2030, and it will provide incentives to reduce waste and foster recycling. In Session 3 “Changing supply & demand: viewpoints from the value chain” PET producers, recyclers and converters explained their positions. Antonello Ciotti, Chairman of CPME, expressed concern at the lack of rPET content definition and raised the ques- tion of imports of so-called foodgrade flakes from non-EU countries. As a result, he saw a major problem in the area of greenwashing and sustain- ability. He called for regulations to pre- vent greenwashing. He continued to note critical issues such as the unfair competition from non-EU producers. He explained that the EU is the only macro-region where there are no trade defence instruments (TDI) on PET imports. China has excess PET capac- ity (domestic demand is greater than total EU demand), and EU PET pro- ducers are penalised by import duties on MEG. In conclusion, he stated that PET manufacturers in Europe are ready to support their customers in reaching the goals set by the Circular Economy Directive. by Heike Fischer