Page 23 from: December 2014
23December 2014
P R E U P L A S T I C S
smarter, by recycling.’ He recommended using
‘far less’ plastic to manufacture the same PET
bottle, all while ensuring the plastic is of high
quality to enable recycling. Introducing a three
dot label (green, orange and red) so consumers
can easily recognise recyclable plastics could
prove a useful tool. ‘Trust me, no manufactur-
er will want a red dot,’ he pointed out.
Then there is the ongoing debate around biode-
gradable plastics. Thompson mused: ‘Why build
in a short circuit to make sure plastics degrade
more quickly? This removes plastics from the
recycling chain, meaning we lose material, mean-
ing we lose value.’ Tackling single-use products
altogether represents ‘a good starting point’ for
nudging business further towards recycling.
So many different approaches
The reality is that people have been ‘trained’ to
throw things away, stated Wolfgang Ringel, vice
president of sorting specialist Tomra. ‘Consum-
er behaviour is geared towards using – using and
discarding after use. People don’t care about the
materials that go into the final product.’
Awareness campaigns have the power to change
this, but only if the industry goes about it in the
right way, he suggested. ‘Take deposit schemes
for plastic bottles, for example. There are so
many different approaches, rapid changes to
rules, and some countries don’t have any such
schemes at all. All in all, the legislative tapestry
can get confusing for consumers.’
Hardly any plastic bottles are found in the
marine litter of South Australia – a fact that has
been attributed to successful deposit schemes.
Frontrunners in Europe when it comes to PET
bottle schemes are Germany (with a deposit
rate of 98.5%), Norway (95%), Finland (93%),
Denmark (89%) and Sweden (85%). The USA,
meanwhile, has managed a 70% deposit rate
for plastic bottles. ‘This is because most people
understand and support the scheme,’ Ringel
observed. ‘They want to participate.’
‘Solid business case’
Supermarkets such as Lidl have taken to launch-
ing deposit schemes of their own for bottles.
The results have been promising, with Lidl
claiming that ‘this type of littering has almost
entirely disappeared’ in neighbourhoods where
such corporate schemes are in place, according
to Ringel. ‘Many supermarkets agree that depos-
it schemes have proven themselves,’ he said.
‘Personally, I think they are a shining example
of extended producer responsibility – the way
we will achieve higher recycling rates.’
Lidl has also gained recognition for setting a
trend regarding recycled content. ‘Bottles of its
own brand contain 50% recycled PET content,’
Ringel told delegates. ‘They have clearly recog-
nised that recycling is a solid business case.’
Fellow guest speaker Dr Reinhard Büscher,
head of the chemical industry unit of the Euro-
pean Commission’s DG Enterprise, told dele-
gates in Brussels: ‘We need to be more inde-
pendent from fossil fuels, and more
independent from unstable nations.’ He cited
ambitious targets, like the 30% decrease in
packaging waste by the year 2030. Figures for
2012 indicate that less than 30% of plastic scrap
in Europe was recycled while 36% was inciner-
ated and nearly 40% was landfilled.
Both recycling performance and energy recov-
ery have witnessed a steady increase in recent
years, he said. Even the nine European coun-
tries with a landfill ban – including Austria,
Switzerland and Germany – look to incinera-
tion as a quick-fix for waste problems, such as
for valuable materials like PVC. Denmark
counts as an ‘incineration leader’ by burning as
much as 80% of its waste.
Even in an ideal world with collection rates
closing in on 100% across Europe, recycling of
all plastic waste is not within reach. ‘It would
take around 3000 new recycling plants worth a
total of Euro 15 billion to deal with the entire
construction and demolition waste stream in
Europe,’ asserted Büscher. ‘I would be interest-
ed to know how much this would be for recy-
cling plastics. I can only imagine.’
‘We have discussed enough’
A transition of this magnitude would require:
major reforms to convert recycling from a pub-
lic task into a business opportunity; investment
in infrastructure; and creation of a strong mar-
ket for secondary materials. ‘We have yet to
convince all downstream users that recyclates
are as good as virgin materials, Büscher argued.
‘When it comes down to it, we not only need
stricter targets, we also need the mindset to live
up to them. Essentially, we have to create the
trust necessary to make it a success – the trust
of the consumers, the trust of the stakeholders
and of other players in the chain.’
Care should be taken to prevent behavioural
factors from governing the industry’s bottom
line, Büscher also advised. And he concluded:
‘Now we have discussed enough. We need to
focus and get done what we should have gotten
done 10 years ago.’
The current of innovation
‘So much is possible with plastics, but plastics
suffer from an extremely negative image,’ Man-
fred Hackl, ceo of recycling systems supplier
Erema, lamented to the EuPR meeting in Brus-
sels. ‘We can, however, use it to develop creative
and unexpected products, ranging from skate-
boards to fl ip-fl ops and fi shing nets. The thing
to keep in mind is innovation.’
To this end, Erema introduced its Interema solu-
tion in the spring of 2013 – the year of the Aus-
trian company’s 30th anniversary. ‘It features the
patented Counter Current system and succeeds
in making clean material even cleaner,’ Hackl
explained. Inside the cutter/compactor, the tool-
equipped rotor disc forms a rotating spout so
that the material circulates the whole time. Light
materials like fi lm no longer stick. ‘Quality is key,
no matter how you look at the market,’ he told
delegates. ‘Thanks to the innovative equipment
designs of our engineers, Erema has already
noticed a strong growth rate this year compared
to last year.’
The company delivers on average at least one
extruder per day to its clients worldwide. Recy-
clers can watch live trials of all of the company’s
equipment at the Erema customer centre in Ans-
felden on March 20 next year. www.erema.at
A total of 75% of all ocean litter is plastic.
RI-10 EuPR plastics.indd 23 04-12-14 14:29
