MATERIALS / RECYCLING PETplanet Insider Vol. 24 No. 01+02/23 www.petpla.net 26 Building the circular economy Demand more from PET, less from the planet According to the United Nations’ “Baseline Report on Plastic Waste”, published in 2020, PET is currently the most recycled plastic in the world. Its share of the recycled market is likely to increase, as the world adopts a shared responsibility approach to waste management. Mismanagement of post-consumer materials and contamination are challenging the supply of feedstocks but more investment in recycling infrastructure is already underway. Investment in advanced and monomer/chemically recycled volumes over the coming decade will see collection of post-consumer beverage bottles reach up to 90%, in regions with proper collection systems. Indorama Ventures’ (IVL) new purpose statement – Reimagining chemistry together to create a better world – reflects the key elements of its Vision 2030 plan. It maps out the route by which both bio-basedrenewable and recycled feedstocks are intended to deliver reduced emissions, divert waste from the environment and build circular manufacturing. Vision 2030 will see IVL invest up to US$8bn to increase biomass to 2.4mn tons and recycled to 1.5mn. Indorama Ventures Investments & Holdings (IVIH) has been created to identify, invest and deliver those objectives. IVL has set a goal to recycle 50bn PET beverage bottles annually by 2025. These objectives are very much in line with consumer demands for sustainable and recyclable materials and global brands’ targets for increased recycled content. Many governments already have plans to collect 90% of post-consumer PET bottles. Recycling of PET bottles is already at scale, across many countries. Even through the Covid-19 pandemic, IVL added to its portfolio of recycling facilities in Europe, the Americas and Asia, with the acquisition of assets in Brazil, Poland, Texas and the Czech Republic, where recycling capacity is planned to be increased to over 1 bn bottles/a by 2025. In the USA, IVL is increasing bottle washing capacity to 43,000 t/a. In partnership with Coca-Cola Beverages Philippines, it opened a new PET Value bottle-to-bottle recycling plant. These investments have cemented IVL’s position as the world’s largest producer of recycled resin for beverage bottles. The company is also operating beyond bottles: IVL and partners are collaborating to develop technologies to recycle PET trays. Today, 500 t of PET trays are being processed monthly. MATERIALS / RECYCLING
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