Petcore Europe Newsletter April 2020 |
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Follow the latest news of Petcore Europe. This is the second newsletter of 2020 featuring updates on the New Circular Economy Action Plan, the Circular Plastics Alliance, the new date for the 2020 PET Monomer Recycling Forum, the white light barrier PET applications SIG workshop and many more topics, as well as news from our members. |
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Dear Petcore Europe members and partners, In this challenging period due to the spread of the Covid-19 virus, we wanted to reassure you that the Petcore Europe activities and support to the membership continue. The current situation implies changes to our way of working as the top priority is to protect ourselves and our communities. All Petcore Europe staff members work from home since mid-March and until further notice, we have all necessary tools in place to enable collaboration from distance and we will continue to share relevant updates with you. All planned face to face meetings in April and May have been cancelled. We will keep you updated about future activities and teleconference meetings. Please do not hesitate to send us an e-mail if you have any feedback, comments or questions. We wish you, your families and colleagues all the best, Petcore Europe team |
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New Circular Economy Action Plan |
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The European Commission has adopted a new Circular Economy Action Plan, in order to achieve a cleaner and more competitive Europe in co-creation with industry, consumers, citizens, and civil society. The Circular Economy Action Plan is in line with several other policy issues such as the Single Use Plastics Directive, Essential Requirements of Packaging and the Circular Plastics Alliance. It is organised into different areas of action, below you can find some of the most important for our industry: - Development of a sustainable product policy framework (with a particular focus os the increase of recycled content in products and the restriction of single-use)
- Work on specific key product value chains, in total seven categories including packaging and plastics:
- regarding packaging the main aim is to reduce the complexity of packaging materials
- regarding plastics the main goal is to increase the uptake of recycled content
- Enhancement of the waste policy in support of waste prevention and circularity, including the establishment of waste reduction targets and harmonised separate waste collection systems
- Reinforcement of the monitoring of national plans and measures to accelerate the transition to a Circular Economy
You can access the action plan here: https://ec.europa.eu/environment/circular-economy/pdf/new_circular_economy_action_plan.pdf More background information can be found on the European Commission website: https://ec.europa.eu/environment/circular-economy/ |
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Circular Plastics Alliance Update |
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As relates to almost everything in life, the present problems have had an impact on the coordination and operation of the Circular Plastics Alliance. Petcore Europe representing its members engages in the two working groups of Packaging and Monitoring whilst staying up to date with the thematic topics of: (1) Design for Recycling; (2) Recyclability; (3) R&D; (4) Collection & Sorting; (5) Monitoring. Covering these themes, we have been engaged to ensure the “Current State of Play” “Essential Requirements” & “ Eco-Design” have had PET input. From the issues surrounding the ability to depolymerise PET to the monomers to return to virgin PET – for food contact compliance, to working on guidelines for PET Package design has kept us busy. Three video conferences for the Monitoring Working Group and one for the Packaging have been attended. As work in progress remains apparent it is not the intent to give a complete assessment in this update. As Petcore Europe also sits on the Steering Committee of the CPA we will attend the next video conference of this umbrella group on Wednesday 30th of April and give a better synopsis post that review. What is apparent is that there is no reduction of activity and intent. The aspect of circularity remains a priority for the European Market driven by legislation and the SUP directive will deliver on expectations. We expect through the engagement that we work towards making PET sustainable as the packaging material of choice under the new Plastic Economy. |
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2020 PET Monomer Recycling Forum - new date confirmed |
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The event had to be postponed from its original date of 16th April due to the developments regarding the coronavirus (Covid-19). Launched in July 2019, the Petcore Europe Special Industry Group "PET Monomer Recycling" aims to establish a strong and sustainable value chain in the development of re-using the monomers from PET waste. Due to the growing interest in PET Monomer Recycling, Petcore Europe recently announced the 2020 PET Monomer Recycling Forum, now scheduled on the 7th of October 2020 in BluePoint Brussels, 80 Bd. A. Reyers, 1030 Brussels. Industry experts will give key insights in the exciting new developments of PET Monomer Recycling. To register & learn more about the delegate fees, please click here. To find out more about the Special Industry Group, visit www.petmonomerrecycling.org, where you can get the latest updates from the Core Activity Committee members, which are engaged in development and/or commercial operation of new technologies to process plastic PET waste into monomer constituents. |
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European Climate Pact - Open Consultation |
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The European Commission’s European Green Deal is the new growth strategy for an EU economy that is sustainable, cleaner, safer and healthier. The engagement of the public in this regard is seen as critical, bringing together citizens, industry, civil society and authorities at all levels. To achieve this, the Commission launched an open consultation to the public and interested stakeholders in order to launch a “Climate Pact” in the 3rd quarter of 2020. Petcore Europe participated in this exercise and will keep the membership up-to-date. The questionnaire can be accessed on the Commission website via this link. |
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PET white light barrier applications Special Industry Group Workshop 28th April |
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The kick-off meeting and workshop of the new Special Industry Group (SIG) for PET white light barrier applications, happened on the 28th of April. The online workshop gathered more than 40 participants which discussed challenges to overcome regarding recyclability, business models and closed stream proposals to convince EPRs as well as European and National Policymakers. Currently, in some countries we notice a switch to PET packaging for dairy products. This potential increase in volume could justify separate recycling streams. The Circular Plastics Alliance and Essential Requirements of Packaging require full recyclability, deadlines are tight and it is time to move as soon as possible in the right direction to prove a concept of circularity. The outcomes of the meeting will be shared with Petcore Europe members in the upcoming days. |
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RETAL has announced that it will donate film and expertise to the help create over 70,000 masks for healthcare professionals on the frontline of the coronavirus. In other news, RETAL has also been featured in an article from FORBES, highlighting their efforts towards circular economy. You can read more about RETAL and their latest news, here. Carbios announced the publication of an article in the prestigious scientific journal Nature, entitled “An engineered pet-depolymerase to break down and recycle plastics bottles”. The article describes the development of a novel enzyme, which can biologically depolymerize all PET waste, followed by an extremely efficient recycling into new bottles. PRE (Plastics Recyclers Europe) communicate that the fourth consecutive PRSE has been postponed to 27 & 28 October and will take place at RAI Amsterdam, as initially planned. Registrations for the show are now open. If you have already registered yourself for the show, there is no need to do so again for the postponed date. Organisational details can be found on the website here. If you are Petcore Europe member and you have news you would like to share with the PET industry please let us know via management@petcore-europe.org. |
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Upcoming events and meetings 23 June 2020 - Technical Committee Meeting Webinar 07 October 2020 - PET Monomer Recycling Forum |
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