logo
 

EFBW calls for better Plastic Recycling infrastructure

image

BRUSSELS (Scrap Register): The European Federation of Bottled Waters (EFBW) has urged European authorities to enhance the performance of collection and sorting systems for beverage containers, in order to ensure the availability of high-quality recycled PET (rPET) in the EU.

Last year, EFBW members committed to collecting 90% of all PET bottles by 2025 as an EU average, ensuring that discarded plastic containers can be converted into rPET.

The EU also approved the implementation of the Single Use Plastics Directive in May, which set a 90% separate collection target for plastic beverage bottles by 2029.

However, according to the EFBW, the current collection level of PET beverage bottles still varies substantially across the EU despite efforts to establish and finance packaging recovery organisations.

If current systems do not improve, the federation warns that this could make it more difficult for bottled water manufacturers to incorporate recycled rPET into their bottles.

To include recycled PET in their packaging, bottled water producers require access to a consistent supply of high-quality, food contact, recycled material, and thus the collection of PET bottles is a high priority of plastic bottle manufacturers.

The EFBW has now endorsed the widespread adoption of deposit return schemes by European authorities as a way of boosting PET recycling rates, claiming that deposit return schemes “have the benefit of yielding very high return rates in a separate ‘clean’ stream for PET beverage bottles.”

Another way forward suggested by the EFBW is the improvement of existing curbside collection systems, claiming that this could also significantly boost PET recycling rates.

comments powered by Disqus
 
     
Copyright © 2017 ScrapRegister 2017-2022. All rights reserved