TRADE SHOW REVIEW PETplanet Insider Vol. 24 No. 04/23 www.petpla.net 44 PET value chain in a fast-paced environment for circularity Petcore Europe Annual Conference 2023 part 2 by Heike Fischer On the second day, extensive presentations were held on the topic of the “PET value chain in a fastchanging environment”. This summary represents an excerpt of the second day and focuses on presentations given on the EU regulations and directives. The review of day1 was published in PETplanet 3/2023. Second day After a short opening and warm welcome by Christian Crepet, Ambassador and honorary member of the Board at Petcore Europe, Srinivasan Prabhushankar, CEO Recycling at Indorama Ventures started his presentation ‘Fundamental objectives for the PET Industries: running several hares at once`. Indorama started the PET packaging business 30 years ago. At that time, the industry looked especially at the right economic solution and right packaging solution for the products. Today, other factors are important: Consumers are looking for environmentally friendly, sustainable products with a low carbon footprint, Shankar emphasises. He reported that Indorama has made a global commitment: Indorama aims to recycle 750 kt of PET by 2025. This means that 50 billion bottles will have to be recycled every year. Another area Indorama is investing in is the reduction of emissions. This means that in 2030 25% of the energy consumed should come from renewable sources. In Mexico, the company started a carbon capture-, use- and storage project. Environmentally friendly fuels and electric vehicle fleets are already used, Shankar summarised. Coal as a fuel is also being phased out, especially in Asia. “PET’s carbon advantage is helping us all reach our sustainability targets”, Shankar stated. Indorama also invests in chemical recycling to avoid landfill and to reuse products that are difficult to recycle. Alexandre Paquot Director, DG Clima.C (Innovation for a Low Carbon Economy), told about the European Comissions Net-Zero Carbon Strategy. Alexandre stated that transforming the EU economy and society to meet climate targets, the Fit-for-55 project, was launched: On July 14, 2021, the European Commission adopted a set of proposals to shape the EU’s climate, energy, land use, transport and tax policies to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels. Achieving these emission reductions is crucial for Europe to become the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050 and for the European Green Deal to become a reality. He indicated that more efforts are needed in the area of packaging, because packaging is one of the main users of virgin materials. He added that technically recyclable packaging is often not recycled yet. He saw a need for innovative solutions for advanced sorting, improved mechanical recycling and improved polymer design. Chemical recycling will also help to some extent, as will the development of alternative raw materials to avoid the use of fossil resources. He concluded his presentation by referring to the EU policies of the Circular the Economy Action Plan, EU Strategy for Plastics in Circular Economy and the EU Directive on Packaging & Packaging Waste. These policies and other projects will help to make the Net Zero plan possible. Subsequently Dr M. Leonor Garcia and Dr Suzanne De Cort from E&Act gave an overview of the current EU directives and regulations. They summarised that on Nov 20, 2022 the European Commission published a proposal for the so-called Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation. It states that all packaging must be fully recyclable with a target for the minimum content of recycled plastic. Likewise, reuse and refilling as well as minimisation of packaging must be achieved. Furthermore, DRS for SUP beverage bottles and metal beverage containers are to be introduced. Discussions are currently taking place in Parliament and Council, which is a normal procedure. Adoption could take place in 2024. They also reported The 30th anniversary of the annual Petcore conference was celebrated in Brussels on February 1+2, 2023. About 300 participants attended the hybrid conference on the topic “PET value chain in a fast-paced environment for circularity”. In addition to a festive evening event, Petcore set new accents within the conference programme structure. Alexandre Paquot Director, DG Clima.C Srinivasan Prabhushankar, CEO Recycling at Indorama Venture
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