This conference took place on 10-11 December in Spain, bringing together over a hundred plastics recycling specialists who debated competitiveness and regulation in plastics recycling in Europe.

Competitiveness

It was pointed out that while new legislation such as the coming Circular Economy Act will impose new requirements in terms of  traceability, classification and quality of recycled material and generally push secondary raw materials, there are major problems. European recycling capacity now stands at 13 million tons – but plants are closing and others have their back to the wall: European plastics production has fallen by 12.4% since 2018, nearly 3 000 companies have closed since 2022, and around 35 000 jobs have been lost during this period. This is largely due to imports of cheap recycled materials, competition from virgin plastics and high energy costs.

Design for recycling will be mandated by the European Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation. Implementing it this year will require greater availability of recycled material, a more efficient collection and sorting system, and reinforced traceability across all flows. A weakened industry is about to be faced with vastly increased demand, in short, and without fair competition the European recycling industry will be unable to meet that demand.

Waste collection and sorting

Design for recycling will make careful sorting of waste even more important. AI is revolutionising plastics recycling by automating waste classification and improving efficiency in recycling plants – but it has a hefty price tag. Still, new technologies such as hydrothermal recycling mean that materials which used to be written off as unrecyclable – such as synthetic materials, lithium-ion batteries and multilayer packaging – can now be recovered. This session also explored chemical and mechanical recycling, both of which are developing new techniques.

The press release gives a thorough accounting of the topics covered by the conference, so do have a look!