EVENT REVIEW PETplanet Insider Vol. 25 No. 11/24 www.petpla.net 31 Our continent though needs imports of recycled materials, less rules and even more controls are needed to support a quicker transition but in accordance with existing rules.” Then Zanchi made an exclusive and pivotal announcement regarding the initiation of the PET futures market in China, at the ZCE (Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange). This is an important instrument for sellers and buyers, which will allow, once accessible also to foreign operators, to fix longer term contracts on a global scale. In conclusion, the GSI founder and CEO indicated in oil rates and freight costs the two main things which will have influence on PET and raw materials prices in 2025: “Oil will maybe increase towards the 100 $ mark, but in any case, will not go below 75 $; freights will move down and possibly up again due to powerful cartels in the sector.” In the final presentation of the morning Chiara Zanchi, GSI General Manager and President of St. Lawrence Foundation, explained how the foundation is really the second heart of GSI, beating to support the community of Makeni in Sierra Leone, one of the poorest countries in Africa. From the creation of the Unimak (University of Makeni) to the courses in agriscience, to the creation of an actual company, a poultry farm (SBD) with 70 workers, raising chickens and producing eggs and feeds for the local people and farmers. The development over the past ten years has been enormous and rewarding for the Zanchi family and for all the people who offered their support to the cause. The help offered to the people in Sierra Leone to have better food and education is however just at the beginning, but the course is set. The afternoon session is opened with Prof Chris DeArmitt, connected on video from the US. He illustrated his studies reported in his (freely available) book “The Plastic Paradox”. After checking a huge number of scientific studies on plastic materials and based on his experience in polymer science, Chris gave a shocking picture of the wide misinformation on plastics. These just represent less than 1% of the materials used in the world, they are surely 13% of household waste, but just 0.3% of the ALL the waste we create! In his video “The Great Plastic Distraction” he shows how many lies on plastics have been spread around in the last years for various reason paving way to the use of other materials which are more polluting and generating bigger amounts of CO2, so contradicting the policies the mainstream policies want to implement. Mr Antonio Protopapa of Corepla introduced what his consortium is doing, in Italy, for improving circularity and sustainability. “The country has good rates in collection but must do better to reach the 90% target. Better work must be done too in separating all plastics, more accurate sorting and recycling need to be reached to have improve the quality of available recycled raw materials.” Then Zanchi opened up the three rounds of Round Table among operators of various sectors to comment on the presentation from Chris DeArmitt. In the first round, Sharma, Protopapa and De Baere agreed that it is definitely necessary to separate scientific information from all the fake news, particularly on plastic packaging. The intervention of Werner Bosman (EU Commission) from Brussels, added up some spice as he showed doubts on the actual validity of some information offered in DeArmitt’s video. In saying it is necessary not to take any step back on plastics, he considered dangerous avoiding discussing the issues that these materials create. “The American professor though is very firm in giving his study the greatest validity, confirming first the full independence of it and then his purely scientific approach in the collection of the data which were found in a long list of strictly scientific papers, without any preconceptions.” In the second round of interventions, J.L. Banos (CAIBA, Spain), fully agreed with DeArmitt and admitted there are big problems in misleading communications on plastic in general. “The main problem is the public opinion which has been influenced in the past by a lot of intentional or unintentional false claims.” Lucas Aquino and Larisa D’Otaviano (Valgroup, Brazil) think that education is fundamental: “It is necessary to properly share correct information on PET and all similar materials starting from schools, and they are trying to do so in Brazil.” Slawomir Rusocki (WIP Group, Poland) agreed that fake news must be fought: “In Poland they are spread also on television. Fighting mainstream media it is hard.” Dirk De Cuyper (Resilux, Belgium) is aware of the study from DeArmitt and would like it to be offered to greater audiences, and to convince consumers eventually. Zanchi immediately took the opportunity to stimulate the managers, and all the operators present in the PET Day room, to act and do whatever in their possibility to get the message through to people, politicians, journalists, to the broadest reachable audience, and to find ways to explain properly the truth on plastics. In the third round, Coert Michielsen (Refresco, Netherlands) was definitely interested in acting according to Zanchi suggestion. Enrico Arciuli (Frana Polifibre, Italy) is fully in line with the initiative, but likes to spend a word to remind that recycling is not just for bottlers or the packaging industry, but a major role in using up and recycling all polyester wastes has to be assigned to the fibre and the textile industry. Ferrarelle (Italy) stated that they already try their best to communicate the recyclability of PET, illustrating to their customers the importance of proper collection. Eventually littering and mismanaged waste are the problems to solve they are caused by uneducated people, not by the PET producers. “We need more collection, education and fines,” said Zanchi convincingly. “Scientifically these measures will work. All European producers must convey the message to the politicians and the public to stop blaming a material which is greener and more precious than what anyone, outside of this business, unfortunately, has been brought to think.” www.gsiplastic.com Francesco Zanchi, founder and CEO GSI and Chiara Zanchi, GSI General Manager and President of St. Lawrence Foundation
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