BIR Convention: Plastic recyclers fear being undercut

The chair of the Brussels-based Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) Plastics Committee said producers of recycled-content plastics are in the midst of discovering which companies and brands genuinely value sustainability in all pricing environments.

Henk Alssema of Netherlands-based Vita Plastics, who currently serves as chair of the committee, described a market that currently is under pressure amid rapidly declining demand for recycled-content plastics. Alssema made his comments at the committee’s meeting at the BIR World Recycling Convention in late May in Amsterdam.

Alssema said regulations could be necessary not only to create stability in supply and demand for recycled raw materials but also to assist the further development of the plastics recycling industry.

The recycling company executive said many companies were using an opportunity created by low virgin or prime material prices to abandon recycled-content materials.

The availability of low-cost alternatives to recycled material was “throwing the loop,” added Sally Houghton of the Plastic Recycling Corp. of California.

A similar point was made by guest speaker Caroline van der Perre, managing director of Belgium-based compounding, extrusion and recycling firm RAFF Plastics. After using recycled material for years in many cases, “Some companies are now switching back to primary,” she said. “We have invested a lot to increase our recycling capacity and now we are struggling to keep all our lines running.”

Max Craipeau of Singapore-based Greencore Resources Ltd. identified recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) as the only resin to have decoupled from prime. He credited the widespread existence of recycled-content mandates tied to that resin.

Craipeau expressed concern regarding the continuation of any such momentum. “Even with those mandates, you see the brands switching back to virgin PET,” he said. “Global minimum recycled content legislation would definitely help all resins.”

Former BIR Plastics Committee Chair Surendra Patawari Borad of Belgium-based Gemini Corp. NV expressed similar concern, saying despite widespread attention to the subject, the plastics recycling rate “is in single digits—and it’s coming down.”

Van der Perre used part of her presentation to identify means of improving conditions for plastics recyclers, including standardization of the legal framework within Europe and an extension of the obligations to use recycled materials.

She also called for encouraging mechanical recycling despite the recent proliferation of chemical recycling ventures. Having questioned the sustainability credentials of chemical recycling when compared with the mechanical alternative, she expressed concern that such ventures were disturbing the markets in their pursuit of material.

Borad also cast doubt on the viability of many chemical recycling projects, with Houghton adding, “I’m still to be convinced it will actually work on a large scale.”

BIR’s Deputy Director for Trade and Environment Alev Somer said the environmental credentials of chemical recycling had been a topic of recent debate at the United Nations Basel Convention and had been earmarked for further discussion once more data emerged.

Somer also provided delegates with an update on BIR’s participation in UN efforts to develop a Global Plastics Treaty (targeted to be signed in 2025) and the UN Plastic Waste Partnership, where forums are being proposed to exchange know-how on the regulatory and technical aspects of establishing extended producer responsibility, or EPR, systems.

The Paris-based Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), consisting of some 38 nations with developed economies, issued a document called “Global Plastics Outlook: Policy Scenarios to 2060."

In that document, OECD was forecasting annual plastics use worldwide will grow from 460 million metric tons in 2019 to more than 1.23 billion metric tons by 2060. Thus, plastic scrap generation was on course to outpace current levels of planned recycling infrastructure investment.