Plastic converters find it ‘hard/very hard’ to get good quality scrap

Europe – Almost 60% of the European plastics converting companies find it ‘€˜hard or very hard’€™ to get their hands on enough plastic scrap of an acceptable quality, reveals a survey launched by the European Plastics Converters Association.

‘The quality of recycled plastic materials remains the biggest barrier to a stronger use of recyclates as raw materials,’ the survey concludes.

Also, only 27% of the European plastics converting companies are of the opinion that their customers are sufficiently aware of the benefits and needs to use recycled plastics.

The current regulatory framework needs to be adapted to adequately support the use of plastic scrap, the association urges. ‘Almost 60% of the European plastics converting companies think that the current regulations are not suitable to support a stronger use of recycled plastic materials in the future,’ it points out.

The survey takes into consideration the experiences of 485 different companies from 28 European countries, which were collected during the last five months.