Technological watch
Kickstart: Rising resin prices and recycling
Rising resin costs may finally be making an impact on the business case for recycled materials.
The Bureau of International Recycling says the market for recycled material has improved, thanks to demand for virgin plastics.
"This has produced a run on raw materials, creating an imbalance between supply and demand," Henk Alssema, chairman of the BIR plastics committee, said in a report on the website letsrecycle.com. "The upward trend in prices began this year and has continued to historically high levels."
But at the same time, he warned, changing to a circular economy to get more materials into the recycling channel takes time.
"We can state unequivocally that there is an extremely fragile balance in the transition to a circular economy," he said. "Yet we all know that an extremely limited percentage of plastic is recycled around the world, and that there is much more plastic waste available than the amounts currently recycled by our industry."
The Bureau of International Recycling says the market for recycled material has improved, thanks to demand for virgin plastics.
"This has produced a run on raw materials, creating an imbalance between supply and demand," Henk Alssema, chairman of the BIR plastics committee, said in a report on the website letsrecycle.com. "The upward trend in prices began this year and has continued to historically high levels."
But at the same time, he warned, changing to a circular economy to get more materials into the recycling channel takes time.
"We can state unequivocally that there is an extremely fragile balance in the transition to a circular economy," he said. "Yet we all know that an extremely limited percentage of plastic is recycled around the world, and that there is much more plastic waste available than the amounts currently recycled by our industry."
This project has been co-funded with the support of the LIFE financial instrument of the European Union [LIFE17 ENV/ES/000438] Life programme
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