PETpla.net Insider 07+08 / 2021

TOP TALK PETplanet Insider Vol. 22 No. 07+08/21 www.petpla.net 12 motivation, and recycling rate is now one important reason for the decision in favour of PET. Emphasising the recycling aspects, Brazil has also producers of polyester fibres working with rPET as raw material, and this created a natu- ral destination for the white bottles of milk and dairies, and this is motivat- ing many brand owners to review their package mix and reinforcing the ten- dency to move to PET as an environ- mentally friendly material PETplanet: Speaking about rPET – How strong is ‘design for recycling’ in Brazil? Marçon: Abipet has a strong interaction with the largest brand owners and other users of PET bot- tles, and in the past 15 years we have been helping them develop a better “eco-design” for the PET containers. Abipet developed and published the “Directives for PET bottles recyclabil- ity” that was disseminated in package design schools and within profession- als from the packaging field around the country. PETplanet: How is the collection system for used PET bottles regulated in Brazil? And can you say something about the return rates? Marçon: Since more than 10 years ago, Abipet has been carrying out a PET Recycling Census with the objective of monitoring market and recycling performance in Brazil. More than a statistic search we interview almost 200 companies in different segments: recyclers, final user/appli- cation and integrated operations (from baled bottle to final product made of rPET). In 2019, Brazil recycled 311Kt cor- responding to 55% of total disposed bottles in the urban solid waste. Many figures of the PET recycling perfor- mance can be found in the infographic ( page 11 ). The Brazilian recycling market has a relative maturity with 80% of approximately 48 recyclers operating for over ten years. There are at least eight large recyclers with bottle-to-bottle and food-grade plants producing more than 1,500Kt/month. All of them have suffered over the pan- demic period since the automatised infrastructure supply chain for recla- mation depended on people, many of whom were shielding of course. It is important to highlight that the big brands behaviour was important during the pandemic once they met their commitments regarding the rPET content into their bottles. This attitude kept recyclers working even during the difficult times. Unfortunately, there is still a large number of companies that have not joined the environmentally friendly design but from our point of view they are already being punished by final customers. “2020 is showing that virgin resin grew up 8% supplying the domestic market, exporting and covering the lack of rPET during the difficult period” PETplanet: Brazil is one of the countries with the highest number of cases of coronavirus in the world. What other impact has this had on the economy so far - especially as far as the PET value chain is concerned? Marçon: Brazil has currently around 200 million inhabitants and proportionally the number of people infected was obviously significant. On the other hand, in terms of cases/mil- lions of people, the Brazilian index was smaller than many developed countries even during the pandemic peak. Considering the negative aspects caused by coronavirus for the econ- omy worldwide perhaps Brazil has not faced the worst scenario as agro- business and other important seg- ments didn’t stop during the pandemic period. For 2021, the GDP is expected to reach 4.5%. PET industry performance was not so bad. Final figures are not finalised yet but our estimate for 2020 is show- ing that virgin resin grew up 8% sup- plying the domestic market, exporting and covering the lack of rPET during the difficult period when reclamations was not able to supply recycling busi- nesses. Another important aspect regard- ing packages is the rupture in the supply chain observed for aluminium cans, glass bottles and polyole- fins. During the second semester of 2020 and now in 2021, many brand owners changed their mix of pack- ages increasing the PET bottles in their lines. PETplanet: Did your members also experience any pandemic-related interruptions in supply chains, besides the recyclers’ infrastructure? Marçon: During the worst period in 2020 (March/April) many compa- nies stopped or significantly reduced their operations for a short period of time as a precautionary measure but it was quickly resumed once demand for beverage didn’t stop. We observe the change in the demand profile with reductions in soft drink consump- tion and growth in water, edible oil, detergents, alcohol-gel, cleansers and many different containers for food delivery, the majority in thermoformed trays. An interesting experience is related to the available capacity of virgin resins that supplied all the domestic demand and exported to other countries including the USA. The total capacity of PET virgin resin in Brazil is 1,000Kt/a, and the regular demand last year was between 600- 700Kt/a. As I mentioned, the recyclers were significantly affected in 2020 because reclamation did not work regularly over the entire country and their raw material (disposable/baled bottles) was not enough to supply recycling plants. PETplanet: Did you notice any changes in consumer behaviour which have had a particular impact on PET packaging during the pandemic, but also on the long term? Marçon: All PET converters realised the change in the size of PET bottles demanded. Due to the lockdown in the cities the “on the go” consumption (small containers) was replaced for home consumption (larger bottles). Another change was the increase in PET trays used for food delivery that took advantage to increase their market share due to the lack of polyolefins to supply the converters. The same happened with detergent and other cleansers when many brands increased PET pack- ages in their portfolio. PETplanet: Thank you for your insights! www.abipet.org.br