TRADE SHOW REVIEW PETplanet Insider Vol. 24 No. 06/23 www.petpla.net 26 Review: PETinar Opening Debate 2023 by Heike Fischer When the first quarter of 2023 was over we took stock and looked ahead. What are the special challenges for the PET industry this year? How is the PET and rPET market developing, what are the trends in bottle design and what technologies can be used to meet new requirements? Reason enough to ask a panel of experts! On April 4, 2023, Srinivasan Prabhushankar (Shankar), CEO of Recycling at Indorama Ventures Public Co. Ltd. (IVL), Paolo De Nardi, Product Manager Stretch-Blow Moulding at Sipa and Rick Unterlander, General Manager PET StackTeck Systems Ltd. discussed these topics from the perspective of a material manufacturer, a machine builder, a bottle designer and a preform mould manufacturer. After a warm welcome and introduction by Ruari McCallion, Editor at PETplanet Insider, Shankar started his presentation with a brief overview of IVLs’ company goals and an outlook on the virgin and recycling PET market. Shankar stated that as a global chemical company Indorama creates sustainable products for society. With 140 production sites in 35 countries on six continents and more than 26,000 employees, IVL is a PETcentric company. IVL has a worldwide PET capacity of 6.2Mt/a which means a market share of 20%. In 2019, IVL pledged to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation to recycle 750,000 t of PET by 2025, which is an equal of 50 billion bottles per year. Today, Indorama already recycles 30-35 billion bottles per year. Virgin and recycled PET market Shankar went on to talk about the global production capacity of PET and rPET. He highlighted that Asia (23.03Mt of PET), Europe (4.9Mt of PET) and North America (4.6Mt) have the highest PET production figures. The global installed capacity is around 35Mt. The global PET line utilisation rate is at approximately 70-80%. The picture is similar for installed rPET capacity: here, too, Asia leads with 12.6Mt, followed by Europe with 3.3Mt and North America in third place with 2.4Mt. The global installed rPET capacity is 20Mt. Shankar pointed out that the utilisation rate of the installed PET recycling capacity is not as high as for virgin PET due to the low collection rate. The result is a limitation of the material contribution to recycling facilities. During the pandemic, IVL installed nine new mechanical recycling plants and is working to double its recycling capacity by 2030. Additional washing lines and more robots have been installed in existing and new recycling plants, especially in regions where labour is hard to find. To complement mechanical recycling, IVL is working on the commercialisation of new chemical recycling. In this area, Indorama is working with technology providers, such as Carbios in France, Europe, to set up a chemical recycling plant. The goal is to ensure that no more PET packaging ends up in landfill. Shankar summarised that PET is by far the most versatile polymer on the market. Whether it is used in packaging, textiles, automotive, etc., it always has great advantages such as its light weight, clarity, and transparency, and on top of that, it has the best carbon footprint, which is also greatly reduced when recycled. Due to the low carbon footprint of PET and rPET, which is demonstrated by a recent LCA study by Napcor, the industry is turning to PET over alternative materials like glass or aluminium. Due to this, the consumption of virgin PET is still growing, even in bad years. The growth rate is even higher than GDP growth. Finally, however, Shankar also drew attention to the challenges facing the PET industry. He sees the greatest challenge in the availability of feedstock. He pointed to three parameters: infrastructure, consumer behaviour and legislation. In terms of infrastructure, there is a lack of collection and sorting centres. In the area of consumer behaviour, IVL is committed to educating consumers, especially at a young age, to provide them with knowledge on how to deal with waste so that they adopt a desired behaviour. The project is called “Become a Waste Hero”. The third point is regulation. Shankar explained that in some countries, it takes a long time to set up deposit systems. A second point is that in some countries, recycled material is not allowed to come back into contact with food. In Thailand and India, for example, they are now starting to reconsider this. Finally, Shankar concluded that PET and rPET will have a bright and sustainable future. Markets and trends in PET bottle production Paolo took to the microphone to present PET bottle markets and trends observed by Sipa. With decades of experience in the PET industry, Sipa offers a complete service for PET bottle packaging, from pellets to pallets under one roof. Thanks to its
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