PETpla.net Insider 09 / 2021

EVENT REVIEW PETplanet Insider Vol. 22 No. 09/21 www.petpla.net 46 the last two years in parts of Australia. Implementation is planned in the UK and in many other countries, espe- cially in Europe. High collection rates are achieved because of the value of the packaging, on average around 90% and in Germany up to 95-98%. In terms of emission reduction, the high collection rate is a crucial factor.” According to estimates, 100 new PET bottles could be made into over 200 rPET bottles, thanks to repeated recycling. “For 90 out of 100 collected bottles, we deduct a few losses in the recycling process and achieve a recy- cling rate of around 75%, which is a conservative estimate; some systems achieve up to 85% or more. However, based on this assumption, 208 recy- cled bottles could be created from the 100 original new bottles in the specific example.” In countries without a deposit system, the return rate lags behind at around 50% and despite the disci- pline of many people who separate their waste themselves, half the bot- tles are lost because they have not been collected separately. Using the aforementioned model, this would mean only 60 recycled bottles would be made from 100 new bottles. “In the example of Lithuania, where there is now a deposit system, collection rates for containers were initially only 34%. Just one year after the introduction of the deposit system, it was already 74% and at the end of the second year 92%.” According to Tomra, a significant loss of potentially recyclable material occurs in mixed waste, e.g. household rubbish. This area has long been con- sidered too complex for sorting and the waste usually ends up in incin- erators or landfill. “In Europe, a lot of incineration takes place and a great deal ends up in landfill sites,” says Dr Rehrmann. “However, these landfills should broadly disappear over the coming decades and then everything will be incinerated. But this doesn’t have to happen; we are currently in a position technologically to sort waste and offer alternatives.” A Norwegian study shows that a few European countries can filter out more than twice as much plastic before incinera- tion or landfill dumping by using cur- rent technology to sort mixed waste. A pilot project by Tomra with Borealis and Zimmermann Germany offers fur- ther evidence, and this recycling dem- onstration plant achieves a throughput of 10,000 t/a. “Of course, the recycling process requires more effort in terms of sorting and washing because of contamination,” explains Dr Rehr- mann. “But very good recycling quality can be achieved for plastics using this method; plastic can be reused so should not be incinerated.” Dr Rehrmann continued: “From a greenhouse gas perspective, incin- eration also generates CO 2 . With separation and the avoidance of new manufacturing going hand in hand, emissions can be reduced signifi- cantly.” Dr Rehrmann also discussed the costs for installing these systems and suggested that in comparison to decarbonising the energy or transport systems, the costs of installing these recycling systems would not be very high. *Non-deposit containers. Collection rate based on 2017 European average. New bottles made with recycled content are based on a 75% recycling rate for PET in a closed-loop system. Source: Tomra Source: Eunomia