Exclusive: No margin for error

The public in Europe pays close attention to the recycling of highly visible post-consumer items, but opportunities to ramp up plastic recycling may lie beyond bottles and shopping bags, according to speakers at the 2015 Plastics Recycling Conference Europe in late October in Madrid

Keith Freegard of United Kingdom-based Axion Consulting said the collection and recycling of plastic bottles and plastic films is “well-advanced” in Europe, but as far as recycling activity for most other types of discarded plastic, “There is room to grow.”

European Union directives set ambitious targets for recycling end-of-life goods, including vehicles, electronics and packaging, but product designers and manufacturers do not always cooperate. In some sectors, said Freegard, “The circular economy is like the Loch Ness monster—often talked about but not always seen.” He showed a slide of a multiresin shredded cheese pouch as an example of packaging that is functional but for which recycling markets are scarce.

Paloma Cruz of Spain-based ExtraPolymers said it is understandable that product designers seek distinctive packaging. “Brands want to be unique—they don’t want plain containers,” she remarked, acknowledging this adds to the challenge for recyclers.

Plastics recyclers in 2015 have been faced not only with quality and sorting challenges, said Cruz, but also a pricing environment that saw PET (polyethylene terephthalate) and HDPE (high-density polyethylene) recyclers and reprocessors at times competing against virgin resins that cost less than recycled resins. “We cannot easily ask producers to use recycled material if they find virgin material cheaper,” she commented.

Freegard said the market has been no better for plastics-to-fuel producers, who contended with the “huge drop in the oil price” in the past 12 months. In North America and globally they also compete with the nearly 10 trillion cubic feet per year of shale gas that the United States can now tap into (and potentially export).

Presenter Serafin Garcia of Sulayr Global Service, Granada, Spain, said it has been the commitment of many of his customers to sustainability that “is keeping us alive” in the face of the competition from low-priced virgin materials. “Retailers are supportive,” he commented. “Customers want green products.”

Sulayr reprocesses PET scrap from many sources, including both post-consumer and post-industrial materials and multi-layer PET scrap. The company has one plant in Spain and another in Austria and is planning to open a facility in the United States in 2016.

The 2015 Paper Recycling Conference Europe event was Oct. 28-29 at the Eurostars Madrid Tower Hotel in Madrid.