Page 62 from: Recycling International – free September/October Issue
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COMMISSION SETS OUT EPR GOAL FOR TEXTILES
The European Commission has proposed an extended producer
responsibility (EPR) for textile products to tackle the exceptionally
low levels of recycling in the industry.
New rules, yet to be approved by the European Parliament or Council,
will make producers responsible for the full lifecycle of textile products
and support the sustainable management of textile waste across the
EU. The plan is to amend the Waste Framework Directive.
‘This initiative will accelerate the development of the separate collec-
tion, sorting, reuse and recycling sector for textiles in the EU, in line
with the EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles,’ a news
release says. ‘Increasing the availability of used textiles is expected to
create local jobs and save money for consumers in the EU and beyond,
while
Insisting producers cover the costs of waste management should
incentivise them to reduce waste and increase the circularity of textile
products, designing better products from the start. Their contributions
will finance investments into separate collection, sorting, reuse and
recycling capacities.
The proposal will also promote research and development into innova-
tive technologies for the circularity of the textiles sector, such as fibre-
to-fibre recycling. It also addresses the issue of illegal exports of tex-
tile waste to countries ill-equipped to manage it. The new law would
clarify what constitutes waste and what is considered reusable textiles,
to stop the practice of exports of waste disguised as for reuse.
BIFFA TACKLES SINGLE-USE VAPES
A national scheme for disposing, collecting and recycling
single-use vapes in the UK has been launched by leading
waste manager Biffa.
The UK’s e-scrap rules, based on European principles,
require shops selling vapes to have a return system in place.
But most do not and a large percentage of the 1.3 million
non-rechargeable vapes disposed of in the UK every week
wrongly end up in general waste or as litter.
The lithium batteries they contain are therefore both a pollu-
tion risk and a fire hazard.
Biffa’s new Vape Takeback Scheme include return bins at
dozens of other locations across the UK, including airports,
motorway service areas, hospitals, universities and colleges,
railway stations, distribution centres, shopping centres and
offices.
The vapes are taken by Biffa to an Approved Authorised
Treatment Facility (AATF) to be dismantled into their constit-
uent parts – battery, casing, electronics, nicotine pads – with
each being treated separately. Up to 80% of the vape device
can be recycled.
CLOSED LOOP PS IS GOAL FOR NEW FACILITY
Ineos Styrolution, Tomra and German waste manager EGN
Entsorgungsgesellschaft Niederrhein have jointly unveiled ‘a ground-
breaking project’ to convert post-consumer polystyrene (PS) waste
into recycled polystyrene for food packaging applications.
A facility with a capacity to mechanically process 40 000 tonnes per year is
planned for Krefeld, Germany and is expected to start up in mid-2025. It is
said to be a world-first at this scale.
EGN will build the plant and manage sorting and washing, while Ineos
Styrolution will be responsible for the purification process to comply with
the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) requirements for food contact
applications.
An agreement with Tomra to provide sorting technology and feedstock
completes the project. Tomra Feedstock will collect post-consumer poly-
styrene waste from disposed food packaging and deliver it to the new site.
Pierre Vincent, managing director EGN, says: ‘I expect the dairy industry
to especially benefit from this new offering by allowing them to mechani-
cally recycle from yoghurt pot to yoghurt pot creating a true circular econ-
omy for this material.’
Jürgen Priesters, md of Tomra Feedstock, adds: ‘We are proud to contrib-
ute to this first commercial-scale polystyrene mechanical recycling facility
for food contact applications. Polystyrene has the right composition to be
recycled mechanically for food applications.’
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