Over the years, plastic has become an essential material for many applications and fields, some of which have been particularly relevant during COVID-19, such as medicine, transport, agriculture, or the safe packaging of all kinds of food. However, none of the plastic they use should be destined for a single use, we need to change the mindset from ‘waste’ to ‘resource’ throughout the value chain. The ‘how’ is outlined in the report ‘rPET, the best solution to ensure the circularity of packaging’, produced by the Innovation and Development Centre for the Circular Economy. This document states that it is necessary to create efficient secondary markets to move towards a circular economy.
The European Union has pioneered this fight, by establishing recycling and reuse targets for plastic packaging of a 50% by 2025 and a 55% by 2030. In addition, by that year, all plastic packaging placed on the market must be cost-effectively recyclable or reusable for economic operators.
The production capacity of r-PET for food use in Spain is significantly lower than its demand
In Spain, a new Law on Waste and Contaminated Land is being drafted, which foresees the creation of two taxes: first, on virgin non-reusable plastic packaging and second, on landfill and incineration. The aim of these new measures is to build a more robust circular economy and, more specifically, to increase the demand for recycled plastic.
Additionally, according to the same report, domestic r-PET has a lower life-cycle carbon footprint compared to imported products (between 0.10 and 0.51 kg of CO2). Furthermore, it should be noted that the environmental impact due to production and transport are the most eco-efficient of all the markets studied (for a price range under €900/tonne, the carbon footprint is 710 kg CO2/tonne).
Other topics of interest: EU must double capacity to recycle plastic if it is to meet 2030 targets
However, according to the report mentioned previously, the Spanish market is not yet ready to meet the current increase in demand for recycled plastic. Specifically, the production capacity of r-PET for food use is significantly lower than its demand: just to meet the European targets of 25% recycled plastic in bottles, approximately 54 kt (kilo tonnes) of r-PET per year will be needed. However, the installed capacity for the production of this material in 2019 did not exceed 35 kt (with a maximum effective supply of 22 kt, as part of the production was contractually committed). Due to this, it is necessary to promote a competitive secondary market for r-PET in Spain.
Safety, essential in food packaging recycling processes
An important aspect of the recycling process is the safety of packaging in contact with food. This process must comply with the requirements established by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), as it is one of the few post-consumer recycled materials used in contact with food.
Therefore, and not limited to rPET bottles, there are mechanical recycling technologies capable of recycling multilayer post-consumer packaging, such as Repetco’s. Through its process, the different layers that make up the plastic are separated, which generates rPET pellets. rPE can be reused in the food industry, for example in trays and containers, as well as in bottles for soft drinks or detergents; and in fibres for the textile and automobile industry. The remaining layers (mainly lids) are not discarded or incinerated but are also recycled.
Other topics of interest: What are PET/PE containers and why are they revolutionary
With this objective in mind, the European Union is firmly committed to research projects, either to promote the development of new renewable materials or to investigate new, more effective and efficient mechanical or chemical recycling processes. In Spain, mechanical recycling is currently a mature process compared to chemical recycling, which has barely been implemented, and which requires a higher investment to develop new facilities.
