Europe faces challenges in meeting plastic bottle recovery target
In March, the European Parliament adopted the Commission-proposed Single-Use Plastics (SUP) Directive to increase the recycling of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), the main component in plastic bottles and containers for packaging foods and beverages and personal care products. This development was already supported by a range of international brands through their own recycling pledges.
“Despite the boost in demand for RPET, collection failed to match those growth rates, reaching 2.1 million tonnes in 2018 – just 2.4% growth on 2017 volumes. Tight supply saw PET bale prices rise 20% in 2018, compounded by the growth in reclamation capacity during the year that expanded to meet the downstream demand for RPET products.
“The reclamation industry increased production of RPET products by 17% to 1.4 million tonnes and packaging applications absorbed two-thirds of that total. The capacity of food-grade RPET barely had time to build prior to the rush of supply enquires following the signing of the SUP Directive. As a result of the Directive, there was an increase of 13% in food grade RPET prices, which were generally accepted as these prices sat only 7% higher (on average) than virgin PET prices. However, this has changed considerably in 2019 with premiums of over 30% on average, peaking at near 50% so far this year.”
Looking ahead, collection volumes are projected to grow by less than 4% per annum over 2019-2020. If this growth rate is sustained in the longer term, the SUP Directive recovery targets will not be met.
National Tyre Pyrolysis Corporation, Mumbai
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