Plastics

| China’s decision to stop importing recyclable plastic waste in January 2018 has left the world with little choice but to landfill recyclables for which no market now exists.

| In an effort to provide a consistent metric to guide the efforts of sustainability for plastics in the Circular Economy, two of the leading global international recycling organizations have developed a global definition governing the use of the term “recyclable” as is relates to plastics packaging and products.

| According to a new research report by Global Market Insights, the. recycled thermoplastics market is expected to reach USD 95 billion by 2025.

| Reyuze Cases makes phone cases, in the USA, out of 100% recycled plastic from the streets, canals, and the landfills of Haiti.

| EU countries lag behind in phasing out single-use plastic bags and curbing plastic pollution, warn Surfrider Foundation Europe (SFE) and Zero Waste Europe (ZWE) on the 9th International Plastic Bag Free Day.

| More collected material is needed to pave the way to increased recycling rates.

| As part of the voluntary commitments for the French government’s Circular Economy Roadmap and in line with French and European Union objectives in the area of plastic recycling, Citeo, Total, Saint-Gobain and the French Union of Fresh Dairy Product Manufacturers (Syndifrais) are joining forces to help lay the groundwork for an industrial-scale polystyrene recycling channel in France and to validate its technical and cost feasibility within 18 months.

| In September 2018 the world’s first facility for POAL recycling will be in operation to produce Ecoallene. POAL is a polyethylene + aluminium polycomposite recovered from food packaging.

| The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) has recently updated its Scrap Specifications Circular to include new specifications for Flexible Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC) Plastic scrap. The new specifications were approved at the ISRI Convention Board and Governance Meetings on April 16, 2018.

| Plastic Recyclers Europe and VKC-CENTEXBEL collaborated on the elaboration characterisation of recycled PE-LD pellets, which provides a framework for the quality assessment of the pellets.

| The European Commission presented an ambitious new Directive to tackle marine litter by introducing a number of measures including reduction and restriction of selected single-use plastic products, such as disposable balloon sticks, straws, cutlery, plates, cups and food containers.

| EuPC regrets to read that the European Commission has put forward today the proposal for a Directive on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment, that mainly targets so-called “single use plastics” and fishing gear, especially in the context of the recent Plastics Strategy Communication.

| During EuPC’s General Assembly in Milan, Renato Zelcher, CEO of Crocco, has been elected as the new EuPC President for the period 2018-2020, replacing Micheal Kundel.

| PlasticsEurope supports the overarching objective of the “Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment” presented today by the European Commission, namely to reduce marine litter in our seas.