A leading recycler has warned of “black clouds on the horizon” for the plastics recycling industry.
Belgium-based Gemini Corporation chairman and chairman of the BIR Plastics Committee Surendra Borad fears that strict enforcement of import regulations by the Chinese authorities and the ban on shipments of plastics from Europe to Malaysia will have an impact on the European plastics trade.
He said that overall exports from Europe are “stagnating” while those from the USA fell 18 per cent in the second quarter of 2012. In India, he said the recent appreciation of the rupee has helped importers increase overseas buying activity but the market remains in “apathy” as bureaucrats fail to understand the significance of waste as a resource.
In Europe, he said that of the 25.1 million tonnes of plastics scrap generated in Europe last year, 6.4 million tonnes was recycled and a further 8.6 million tonnes sent to energy recovery. Of the recycled material, 3 million tonnes was handled within Europe and 3.4 million tonnes was exported for recycling.
