Technological watch

Petcore Europe President Stephen Short signed the Circular Plastics Alliance (CPA) Declaration during a high-level event in the European Commission on Sept. 20. Petcore Europe was among more than 100 representatives from companies, business organizations and public authorities as well as standardization bodies in attendance.

The declaration describes the CPA’s vision for more recycled plastics in Europe, as well as commitments to reach the EU target: 10 million tonnes of recycled plastics used in products in the EU by 2025. The agreed actions include:

 

Design for recycling

• Work plan to deliver on design for recycling guidelines and recyclability standards for all plastic products by March 1, 2020.
• Overview of the current status of the production of recycled plastics in the EU; identify untapped potential for more recycling and mapping of necessary investments in recycling facilities by Jan. 1, 2021.

Collection and sorting of plastic waste

• State-of-play on collected and sorted plastic waste in the EU by June 1, 2020.
• Mapping of the necessary investments in collection and sorting facilities and infrastructures by Jan. 1, 2021.

Recycled content

• Identify the legal, economic and technical requirements ensuring more uptake of recycled plastics, and report on these with solutions by Jan. 1, 2021.
• R&D and investments including chemical recycling.
• Research and development agenda on circular plastics by March 1, 2020.
• Mapping of investments and funding needed in collection, sorting, recycling and converting of plastics by Jan. 1, 2021.

Monitoring

• Harmonized voluntary system to monitor volumes of recycled plastics used in European products by Jan. 1, 2021.

Petcore Europe was heavily involved in the preliminary work of the CPA and will remain a key player in packaging-related activities while working on a Circular Economy for PET. In the next months, the CPA will establish working groups, a steering committee and a general assembly, taking place once a year, to deliver on the actions.