Plastics

| Daniele Ferrari, CEO of Versalis (Eni), has been elected President of PlasticsEurope, succeeding Patrick Thomas, CEO of Covestro, who held this office since 2011.

| Taking the five- to 10-year view, it was possible that China would decide to stop importing plastic scrap. That was the worst-case scenario presented by the Executive President of the China Scrap Plastics Association - Dr Steve Wong- in light of the country’s National Sword initiative to prohibit imports of any material that could contain contaminants and therefore lead to environmental pollution.

| New developments in marker technologies for sorting plastic packaging should not be viewed as ‘the answer’ to increasing recycling rates, however they could be valuable in other ways leading to higher quality and value in recycling, suggests Axion Consulting.

| Around 120 representatives from 19 countries attended the 2nd International Forum "Agricultural Plastics – Potential for Recycling“, organised by RIGK.

| The PVC industry is making real progress towards sustainability and a positive contribution to the circular economy through a united industry approach, delegates heard at the 5th VinylPlus Sustainability Forum 2017 in Berlin, Germany.

| APK plans to set up recycling plants by 2025 together with strategic partners in Europe and South- East Asia in order to strengthen plastics recycling and to reduce global land pollution and marine litter.

| On 20 and 21 April, EuPC, the Trade Association of Plastics Converters in Europe held the Food Contact Plastics Seminar organized together with Polymer Comply Europe.

| Since Starlinger recycling technology presented its technology for odour reduction in post-consumer recycling in 2016, it continues to be in high demand: a customer already ordered the second recycling system equipped with it.

| On 15 March, Petcore Europe and the European Federation of Bottled Waters (EFBW) - on behalf of the Polymark consortium - invited to a Workshop & Training in Brussels.

| The "Final Consortium Meeting" of the Polymark project was held at Sesotec on 7th and 8th February 2017. Polymark was a three-year research project funded by the European Commission that focused on a new technology for the identification and sorting of plastics, particularly PET.

| In most countries in Europe, PVC windows have meanwhile reached high level of market penetration. They are impressive, with perfect design, universal adaptation to styling requirements, they are easy to maintain and – what is especially important – they can be 100% recycled.

| Poly-Wood, based in Syracuse, IN/USA, a manufacturer of outdoor furniture made from recycled HDPE, is now also a highly efficient plastics recycler. At its production centre, Poly-Wood operates one of the most modern recycling plants for HDPE with systems from Lindner washTech.

| More than 80 companies and organisations will be showcasing the latest advances in plastics recycling in the Plastics Recycling Show Europe, taking place at the RAI Amsterdam on 29-30 March 2017.

| At Identiplast 2017, in the EPRO best plastics recycled plastics awards, Spain won both awards, in the design category as well as in the product category.