TRADE SHOW REVIEW PETplanet Insider Vol. 23 No. 09/22 www.petpla.net 68 Review PETinar: Trends in the virgin and recycled PET market: How can recyclability, circularity and sustainability be realised? Spotlight on circularity of recycled PET The seventh PETinar organised by PETplanet Insider took place on May 6, 2022. PETplanet invited two experts to talk about trends and opportunities for recyclability, circular economy, and sustainability specifically for the PET industry. Casper van den Dungen, Vice President of Plastics Recyclers Europe and Dr Paolo Glerean, Chairman of RecyClass presented current facts, from legislation to market figures and initiatives to solve the problem of the shortage of recycled PET material. After a brief introduction of the two speakers, Ruari McCallion, editor of PETplanet, handed over to Casper, who began his presentation on promoting the circular economy in the PET industry in Europe. Casper spoke in behalf of Plastics Recyclers Europe. With 150 company members, various working groups on plastics recycling and the experience of over 25 years, Plastics Recyclers Europe (PRE) represents the voice of European plastics recyclers. Casper explained: “Recyclers are a very important factor in the circularity of plastics and the transition to a circular economy.” Regarding PET recycling Casper reminded: “Just a few years back, PET beverage bottles were recycled into fibres, for strapping or clothing. Today, the biggest outlet is packaging – making circularity real even for food contact applications.” He firstly presented on overview of the evolution on the PET bottles collection from 2018 to 2020 with the increase of 9%, from 51% to 61%. In the process, 4.6 million tonnes of rigid PET packaging ended their product life and were available for collection in 2020. 61% of PET bottles and 21% of trays were collected for recycling. There is still room for improvement for the collection volume. “Countries that have a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) achieve a recycling rate of up to 83% or more. By 2025, the number of countries with DRS in the EU will have doubled. This means a significant increase in recyclabled material,” stated Casper. (Fig.1) Casper sees an increase in bottle-to-bottle recycling and fewer PET bottles being used for sheet production. “There was an increase of installed PET recycling capacity in 2020. Now we have reached a total of 2.8mt,” Casper continued. Due to new installed capacity, tray recycling will increase in France and Belgium. The end markets for recycled PET Casper summarised as follows: “A total of 27% is used for food contact application. 32% is processed for blow moulding and 33% in sheet production, finally 24% goes into fibre applications.” (Fig.2) “However, there are still some challenges with PET recycling that need to be addressed. These include the insufficient separate collection of PET, which results from a lack of investment. This in turn leads to poor quality of the collected material. There is also too little attention paid to design for recycling, and no harmonisation of systems or introduction of standards,” said Casper. In order to improve the situation, existing legislation such as the Plastics Strategy and the Single Use Plastic Directive will be supplemented by further PET-specific (Recycled Plastic in food-contact Articles Regulation) and packaging-related legislations (Waste Framework Directive, Waste Shipment Regulation and the Packaging & Packaging Waste Directive). “To meet the 90% collection rate and the mandatory recycled content targets, Europe will require an expansion in recycling (wash-) capacity of at least one third by 2029. (Fig.3) In thirteen other EU countries, politicians have decided to introduce DRS systems by 2025 at the latest. This will push more rPET into the market. However, it remains a balancing act between all stakeholders. But: 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,” Casper summarised. As Casper mentioned, the design for recycling is an important prerequisite to keep PET circular and thus highquality material in the market. Paolo Glerean is Chair of the RecyClass platform which aims to make plastic circular by ensuring all products are recyclable and by promoting transparent uptake of recycled content in new products in line with the circular economy. Paolo began by explaining: “The platform includes two major focus areas: recyclability and recycled content.” Fig.1 Fig.2 Fig.3
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