Flexible Polyethylene Recycling In Europe: Accelerating The Transition Towards Circular Economy
June 23, 2019Plastics Recyclers Europe published a paper identifying the prerequisites for increasing recycling of flexible polyethylene into a high-quality raw material while ensuring a sustainable and cost-effective process.
With the converters’ demand of around 9 million tonnes[1],
LLDPE/LDPE is the second biggest resin processed in the EU and consequently
demonstrates a high recycling potential. However, today’s recycling rate of
this resin is at the level of around 31%. This is caused by the fact that
reaching for higher targets and higher quality of the recycled material from
this stream is hampered by a number of challenges that need to be overcome in
order to reach beyond the low hanging fruit.
“Plastic film waste is still perceived as a demanding and difficult stream to
treat, however, we in Europe have proven that even stretch film recycling is
possible. Nonetheless, to reach for the additional quantities from
post-consumer packaging we need a strong commitment of the value chain to work
towards making this material fully sustainable”, said Ton Emans, Plastics
Recyclers Europe, President.
The main bottlenecks specified in the paper refer to low collection rates &
low quality of input materials, lack of design for recycling as well as the
continuous development of the recycling technologies. Firstly, harmonized
collection and sorting processes at the EU level must be introduced to increase
both the quantity and the quality of the collected waste. Secondly, design of
plastic packaging controls to a large extent the degree to which packaging can
be recycled, as structures and materials which are incompatible with mechanical
recycling cause a number of disruptions in a recycling line. Therefore,
specific design for recycling guidelines must be followed when manufacturing a
product and when introducing any kind of innovation on the market. Lastly,
although the advancements in recycling and sorting technologies have greatly
improved in the past years more investments as well as research & development
is needed to continuously enhance the quality of recycled material.
The industry’s effort will have to be further strengthened by an adequate
legislative framework that will create conditions for further expansion. The
Member States and regions will equally have to thoroughly implement the EU
legislation.
The new legislative measures introduced by the reviewed Waste Package, the
Plastics Strategy and the Single Use Directive oblige the industry to take
immediate and decisive steps in production and waste management of plastics
packaging. It is indispensable to investigate ways of increasing the collection
rates, increasing the quality of waste as well as diverting and evaluating the
potential the material that is currently either landfilled or incinerated. The
new targets can be achieved only if the main bottlenecks are undertaken and
solutions for them elaborated. Working towards safe, light and functional
packaging while ensuring its recyclability at the end of its life is a must.
This work needs to be geared towards advancing the recycling of flexible
packaging to further improve the environmental credentials and the global
sustainability of flexible packaging.