BIR Congress: Plastic Scrap Follows its Own Course

The plastic scrap market continues to evolve, with both economic and policy issues affecting the demand for and pricing of plastic scrap globally.

Speaking to delegates at the Plastics Division Meeting at the 2011 Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) World Recycling Congress, Surendra Borad of Belgium-based Gemini Corp. urged recyclers to move toward the goal of adding plastic scrap to the roster of secondary materials seeking the “end of waste” designation.

“The impact of these rules is quite big on the recycling industry,” said Borad. “The great impact for the Middle East [from] this step is that exports of such scrap will then be possible without notification. I believe that such relaxation increases the trade among different regions.”

A concern within the plastic and plastics recycling industries is being caused by the quick adoption of plastic shopping bag bans. Such bans have occurred in Italy and in the state of Delhi in India. “The consumers and producers in India believe the ban took place without any scientific study,” said Borad. He added that “the United Kingdom Environment Agency has done a study on life cycle assessment of supermarket carrier bags [that] concludes that the alternative to plastics bags will have to be used many more times than expected before there is any environmental benefit.”

Borad also indicated that throughout Europe in recent months, while price for new plastic have been increasing, scrap plastics has not followed suit because demand from China has dropped off considerably.

Speaker Candy Chen, based in China and working for France’s Veolia Proprete Recycling, said that China nonetheless welcomed some 75 percent of the plastic scrap that was shipped internationally in 2010.

Chen indicated China imported 9.4 million tons of plastic scrap in 2010, but imported at a slower pace in the first quarter of 2011, bringing in just 1.8 million tons.

She said that the LDPE (low-density polyethylene) market had been depressed in early 2011, with demand by Chinese manufacturers largely covered by previously purchased inventories of scrap.

Regarding the overall plastic scrap scenario in China, Chen remarked that expenses to import plastic scrap from the United States and Europe continue to rise for Chinese buyers, who are seeking material in new places such as South Asia, Latin America and Australia.

The 2011 BIR World Recycling Convention was May 23-25 in Singapore.