The Polyolefin Circular Economy Platform (PCEP) has announced a target of using 4 million tonnes of recycled polyolefins in European products by 2025. If it meets this target, it will be double the amount used in 2016.
This replaces its target of 3 million tonnes, which it has already met.
PCEP includes members such as Alpla, Amazon, BASF, Berry, Danone, Dow, INEOS, PepsiCo, Plastic Energy, Repsol, SaicaNatur and others.
Other long-term voluntary commitments agreed by the PCEP general assembly include:
- Increasing the share of post-consumer PO recyclates to 30% of total PO use by 2030 (estimated at 10.5% in 2021);
- Recycling 60% of collected PO packaging by 2030 (estimated at 28% in 2021 based on new calculation methodology);
- Recycling 50% of collected total PO waste by 2030 (estimated at 35.4% in 2021);
- Reviewing the industry’s level of ambition every two years.
PCEP Steering Board interim chair Ton van der Giessen said: “PCEP is all about action, not just words. Having achieved our target faster, by revising our pledge and our voluntary commitments we are demonstrating that PCEP is determined to be a major driving force in our industry’s transformation to circularity.”
To ensure the delivery of its pledge and commitments, PCEP said that three key enabling conditions need to be achieved.
- All post-consumer PO waste should be collected along with other dry recyclable materials and sorted to standards which PCEP will help to establish.
- All PO products and packaging across the value chain should be designed according to PCEP’s Design Principles, maximising the potential use of recycled PO and promoting the purest possible polymer streams.
- Product specifiers, such as brand owner procurement departments, should make increasing recycled PO content in their product mix a strategic objective, so driving acceptance of the material.
PCEP also wants to see European policymakers recognise that all forms of recycling count towards recycling rates and targets.
It would also like the EU to dedicate resources to support the development and approval of technologies to enable recycled polyolefin content in food contact applications, without compromising food safety; implement the EU waste directives across all Member States by 2025; and ensuring the legal framework encourages investment in recycling innovations and allows time for investment to be translated into on the ground capacity.
