Europe is one step closer to recycled products

The two winners of the EPRO Awards 2019 have been announced at the Identiplast conference in London. First place in the category ‘Product Innovation’ went to ‘The Simple One’ plastic bottle design. The Jordan Green Clean toothbrush was the ‘Sustainability’ winner.

More than 120 companies entered the annual EPRO Awards, which is organised by the European Association of Plastics Recycling & Recovery Organisations. Delegates at Identiplast were also allowed to vote on their favourite designs. ‘Settling on the best entries was not an easy job,’ says Javier Constante, president of PlasticsEurope.

The Simple One bottle, which took the ‘innovation’ crown for Austrian business ALPLA, is 60% lighter than traditional high-density polyethylene bottles. Another benefit of this new style of packaging is that it does not have a cap. Instead, it can simply be torn or cut open. This feature could save a ‘significant amount’ of materials, the judges found, and further applications are being investigated.

Renowned Norwegian interior designer Andreas Engesvik helped Orkla Home & Personal Care develop a ‘truly sustainable’ toothbrush. The winner is made from a combination of post-consumer plastic and recycled paper fibres. A series of beige, red, green and blue recycled toothbrushes have been received with ‘great enthusiasm’ on the Scandinavian market. A launch in New Zealand, Korea and Malaysia will follow later this year. 

‘New technologies and new ideas are vital if we want to reach full circularity,’ Daniel Calleja Crespo, director general of DG Environment of EU, told delegates in London. ‘We will never achieve a transition if we are not innovative and if we do not work together.’ Speaking about the multitude of new recycling rules and regulations being introduced, Crespo added: ‘Our purpose is not to simply create new regulations. It’s about creating effective regulations.’