Up to € 10 billion worth of investments will be needed to innovate and expand the separate collection, sorting and recycling capacity at EU level. The industry is prepared to make the necessary investments if there are legislative measures ensuring a significant uptake of plastic recyclates; which is becoming even more necessary by the minute in view of the Chinese ban on imports of certain waste streams.
We recommend setting minimum recycled content requirements for plastic products and packaging products where environmental benefits exist, and where food safety considerations are met, noting levels will vary by product and material. These requirements should escalate over time.
Utilisation of recycled resin instead of virgin resin has a significant impact on energy and pollution reduction. It exponentially reduces climate emissions and improves resource efficiency, while at the same time carving out a future role for European enterprises and turning the recent China ban to our advantage.
We also recommend that eco–‐modulation of fees paid by producers is designed in a way that does not only consider the recyclability of products, but the recycled content as well. Likewise, green public procurement is also an important tool to increase demand for secondary raw materials.
Lastly, we recommend that the European Commission review and consider new and innovative approaches though economic incentives and penalties to encourage the procurement of recycled resin.
Carbios has announced new results in the optimization of its biorecycling process of waste PET plastics. The hydrolysis of PET plastics into their original building-blocks now reaches a conversion rate of 97% in only 16 hours.