Plastics Recyclers Europe (PRE), a Brussels-based plastics organization, has released a statement refuting comments made by an executive with a U.K.-based Energy from Waste (EfW) company in regards to promoting incineration while challenging the European waste hierarchy.
What generated PRE’s strongly worded statement were comments made by Kristian Dales, FCC Environment’s (www.fccenvironment.co.uk) sales and marketing director, who questioned the commercial viability of recycling plastics at the recently concluded Identiplast conference, held in Rome in late April.
Following remarks made by Helmut Maurer, Waste Management & Recycling Unit, DG Environment, European Commission, Dales said, “It’s all very well and good arguing for plastics recycling over energy recovery, but is there a commercially viable market for recycled plastics? Where is the certainty given the downturn in the global commodities market and the recent spiraling of oil prices, the impacts of which are already impacting on demand for recovered plastic polymers?
Dales continued, “Quality will continue to be a crucial price differentiator, but this is heavily reliant on influencing consumer behavior to address issues of contamination. There is no sign yet of the scale of funding we saw back in the early 2000’s to orchestrate new public education campaigns to tackle this.”
Following the release of Dales comments, Ton Emans, PRE’s president, noted, “The waste hierarchy is not anyone’s view but the base of the European waste legislation. The principles are clear: we should avoid generating waste and reuse our product as much as possible. Finally, when the products become waste they should be recycled. So, EfW and landfilling are the less preferred options.”
“Since this year, waste must be collected separately. Commingling waste together is no longer an option. How can we justify to our citizens, who are paying taxes and sorting their plastics that these are directly sent to landfills or incineration?” Emans added.
In concluding, Emans said that PRE waits for the new Circular Economy Package to overcome the various market failures in the plastics material value chain. “This new legislative proposal will also be a strong tool to reaffirm the basic rules on waste management in Europe to assure a proper implementation in every Member State.”