MATERIALS / RECYCLING PETplanet Insider Vol. 23 No. 04/22 www.petpla.net 11 MATERIALS / RECYCLING 11 to 2.2mt sent today). In that scenario rPET would reach 55% of total PET demand by 2030 (compared to 26% of today). The driving force for advancing both collection and recycling of PET is the legislative framework. The new EU Single Use Plastics Directive (SUP), which introduces specific targets on both collection and recycled material uptake, has already boosted the voluntary commitments and pledges of retailers, producers and brand owners alike. The value chain actors are, now more than ever before, focused on the integration of the recycled, food grade PET in their packaging products and declared a range of objectives to incorporate recycled content within their products. Driven by these pledges and with the mandatory recycled content targets – the share of foodgrade rPET in PET beverage bottle production is set to continue to grow rapidly. New trends and developments within the industry do and will continue to emerge. For example, capacity for PET tray recycling lines have increased in the past few years and it is estimated that the tray recycling capacity will reach around 100 kt of PET trays in the next 2 to 3 years, which is 10% of trays placed on the market and little less than half of trays currently collected. Recycling of this type of packaging will further add to the food grade volume, contributing towards the set targets. Moreover, by 2025 it is expected that 19 EU Member States will have DRS in place for PET bottles. Today, seven EU Member States with established DRS achieve sorted for recycling rates of 83% or higher. This implies that with the EU SUP Directive collection rate targets already in place, the collection figures, as well as quality, are likely to increase substantially in the lead up to 2025. As the EU is, on the global scale, the pioneer in terms of PET circularity thanks its extensive base of recycling companies, high-tech technologies and best practices it will have an impact on the countries across the globe by exporting its technologies and know-how. Concerning the technological development there will be more smarter packages appearing on the market which will allow for a better separation of different PET applications. Another important development will be making textile products more circular, as today PET recycling is focused on packaging. For this new stream chemical recycling will be the key technology. New infrastructure is, however, needed to handle the collection and feedstock preparation for this new circular path. Moreover, mechanical recycling with its best CO2 savings performance will remain the main practice for the industry in making PET circular, with chemical recycling being a complementary solution for new challenges to come. PETplanet: Thank you so much Casper. E N D L E S S I N N O V A T I O N S I N C E 1 9 1 9
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