PPRCE 2019: Changing the narrative around plastics

The presence of microplastics in the environment from mismanaged end-of-life packaging and products has been well-documented, but speakers during the 2019 Paper & Plastics Recycling Conference Europe stressed the many benefits of plastic products and encouraged better end-of-life management of these items.

“Plastic is here to stay,” said Olivier Keiser, chief sustainability officer for the Korean chemicals company Songwon Industrial Group. “Modern life is impossible without plastics.”

Keiser joined fellow panelists Albert Gornals, procurement officer for expanded polystyrene (EPS) recycler Traxpo S.L.U. of Spain, and Maria Rodriguez, sustainability manager for Madrid-based packaging company Grupo Lantero, during the R-Polymer Consumer Panel, which was Nov. 6.

Despite the material’s importance, more than three-quarters of it ends up as waste, Keiser said, adding that the industry needs to spend more time educating the general public on its value. “Plastic isn’t the problem; it’s the plastic waste.”

He continued, “Plastic is associated with something bad today, and that is wrong. We have to take the narrative or someone else will.”

Rodriguez agreed that plastics have been beneficial to modern life as well as to the environment when considered from a life cycle analysis perspective.

She said 51.3 million metric tons of plastics are used annually in the European Union. Forty percent of that amount is used by the packaging sector.

Postconsumer recycling of plastics in Europe increased from 24.5 million metric tons in 2006 to 29.1 million metric tons in 2018, she noted, with demand for recycled plastics growing as well, driven by legislation in some markets as well as by brands’ sustainability initiatives.

Rodriquez said constant change characterizes the current plastics recycling market. “We will have to closely collaborate among all the players in the supply chain.”

Keiser warned of “simple answers to complicated issues” if the industry does not control the narrative.

Bans are once such simplified solution that governments have enacted, and Gornals said EPS products are a popular target despite being fully recyclable.

“Sometimes economics are not enough to encourage recycling,” he added, citing the challenges associated with EPS recycling, which include the material’s low weight, the need for specific processing equipment, cross-contamination risks, capillarization of the waste stream in urban and rural areas and an evolving framework of local waste management regulations.

“Banning is not the solution,” Gornals said. “I am against that if there is a way to recycle it. Legislators tend to use cannons to kill flies.”

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He added that it would be impossible to remove the material entirely and that banning it could reduce the number of companies willing to recycle EPS if less of it is available.

Keiser said Songwon, a plastics additive manufacturer, is working on a circular approach that involves designing products to be recyclable from the start. This type of approach would require companies to have a first, second and third application in mind from the beginning. “Preserving the value of the plastics is key.”

To facilitate that, Keiser said Songwon suggests adding double the amount of the company’s antioxidant at the start of the initial compounding process. This enhances the material’s mechanical performance throughout its life cycle, he said.

The 2019 Paper & Plastics Recycling Conference Europe, organized by Recycling Today Events, was Nov. 5-6 in Barcelona, Spain.