Europe – Plastics converters, recyclers and collectors from various European countries have joined forces to launch a certification and audit scheme called EuCertPlast as a means of implementing the CEN standard (14343) regarding post-consumer plastics recycling. The industry has welcomed this development as a major step towards ‘guaranteeing good-quality products’.
Alexandre Dangis, Managing Director of the EuPC plastics converters body, says this initiative will ‘demonstrate that good practices on post-consumer plastics recycling should be rewarded with a European certificate’, which will subsequently ‘boost the use of recyclates in Europe by plastics converters’. Converters ‘are ready’ to take on more of the material and the scheme will ‘contribute to more potential for higher plastics recycling targets in Europe’.
Apart from the impact on quality and use, there is also a significant legislative benefit, claims Ton Emans, President of the European Plastics Recyclers (EuPR). ‘A suitable harmonised auditing scheme for Europe was needed due to the difficulty in gaining access to plastics waste from the different and often complex national systems,’ he explains.
Now a level playing field has been created, plastics recyclers have obtained access to raw materials for further treatment in Europe. ‘This is a major step forward for our young industry,’ concludes Mr Emans.
Italian plastics recovery organisation Corepla has already announced its intention to comply with EuCertPlast, confirms Francis Huysman, Co-Chairman of the European Association of Plastics Recycling and Recovery Organisations (EPRO). ‘And I am confident that other schemes will also take this approach,’ he states.
The scheme has been in the works for three years and has been based on an auditing model from Germany. EuCertPlast was supervised by EuPR and EPRO in collaboration with the EuPC, EuPET, RECOVINYL and cyclos GmbH. Several plastics recycling companies performed initial pilot audits at factory level.
For more information, visit: www.eucertplast.eu/en
Don't hesitate to contact us to share your input and ideas. Subscribe to the magazine or (free) newsletter.
Loading ...
