Suzhou Oude Plastic Recycling

11.01.2012 − At the end of 2011, there was another considerable decline in prices for post-consumer single-use PET bottles from deposit systems in Germany. Some recyclers cut back on their purchasing significantly, and in some cases completely stopped buying coloured bottles from deposit systems. Only a few PET bottle recyclers were planning to operate following the Christmas holidays. PET recyclers told EUWID that they would still take a break in the first weeks of 2012.
Prices for PET flakes and regranulate fell again in December, which enabled recyclers to put pressure on post-consumer bottle prices.

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Councils need to focus on collecting plastics for which a clear market exists, according to Stuart Foster, the incoming chair of plastics recycling organisation Recoup.

Speaking to letsrecycle.com ahead of taking over the chief executive role from John Simmons today (December 13), Mr Foster praised the efforts of councils in boosting plastic recycling rate and said he was said a supporter of recycling mixed plastics -otherwise known as non-bottle plastics - in principal.

But, he argued that until suitable uses can be found for them, there needed to be a greater focus on collecting materials for which end markets already exist, such as plastic bottles.

“We have seen a big increase in the number of councils collecting non bottle plastic. Recoup has always stuck with the mantra that you should only recycle what you can sort. It would be a different story if we can make sure those products can get into suitable end uses”, Mr Foster said.

Mr Foster added that information given to householders about the different types of plastics that can be recycled is often very confusing, as well as lack of ‘joined up thinking’ in the way recycling services are delivered across the country. This in turn is having a knock on effect on the quality of material that reaches plastics recycling facilities, he said.

“We need to look very closely at labelling and how the message is passed to consumers. I’ve never met anyone who finds the polymer codes useful, it should be made simpler for people to understand”, he said.

Bottles

In order to boost plastic bottle recycling rates, Mr Foster said that improving communication between manufacturers, councils and residents and increasing the amount of ‘on-the-go’ collections was vital.

 “The UK has developed a very strong infrastructure for bottle processing”, he commented. “A report we will be publishing shortly will show that many householders have access to bottle recycling collections and our latest figures suggest that around 48% of plastic bottles are being recycled, which compared to when we started is very good. In order to move it forward better communication and behaviour change is going to be key.”

While highlighting education as one of the best means of stimulating growth in the amount of plastic bottles being recycled in the UK, Mr Foster also said he believed that investment in new technology and infrastructure will also be crucial.

“If we can get a clear message out, that will help us to grow to 60, 70 or maybe 80% bottle recycling. Further investment would need to be done in the existing plastic bottle infrastructure if this target can be met, if it ran at full capacity now using current numbers it would be somewhere over 50%.”

Recycling ‘on-the-go’

While great strides have been made in encouraging people to recycle waste produced in the home, Mr Foster said that steps still needed to be taken to improve the availability of recycling facilities in public areas.

“There is currently a greater need for recycling on-the-go. The infrastructure for recycling outside of the home is not really there, we want to make sure that the gap is filled. At the moment there is a corporate-lead initiative such as Coca Cola’s ‘Recycle Zone’ scheme but we are hoping that more companies will come into this.”

As part of the Coca Cola Recycle Zone scheme launched in 2009, the drinks manufacturer has erected a number of bottle collection bins in public places including hospitals, universities and theme parks nationwide, to encourage people to recycle when out and about. Recoup worked closely with Coca Cola to implement the scheme and Mr Foster indicated that this would be the kind of initiative he would be looking to support in the future.

He said: “We will continue to support new initiatives and just as importantly we will continue to ask the difficult questions to make sure opportunities are moved forward in as sustainable and balanced way as possible.”

SONOMA, CALIF. (Oct. 12, 12 p.m. ET) – After staying flat for two years, the volume of PET bottles recycled in the United States increased by 113 million pounds in 2010, pushing the recycling rate close to 30 percent for the first time since 1996.

The 2010 rate of 29.1 percent is up from a low of 19.6 percent in 2003, and is only 2.6 percentage points lower than the 31.7 percent rate in 1996.

It also marks the seventh straight year that the PET recycling rate has risen, according to the National Association for PET Container Resources in Sonoma, Calif., which released its post-consumer PET container recycling report Oct. 12.

The plastic recycling industry’s all-bottle recycling rate report — which includes numbers for high density polyethylene bottles and containers, the second most recycled plastic — is expected to be released by the Washington-based Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers at its fall meeting in Charlotte this week.

NAPCOR said the total volume of PET bottles recycled increased from 1.444 billion pounds in 2009 to 1.557 billion pounds in 2010, with expanded bottle deposit programs in Oregon, Connecticut and New York accounting for almost half of the increase.

“If we hadn’t had the expansions in those three bottle deposit states, reclaimers would have had a rough time,” said Mike Schedler, technical director for NAPCOR.

NAPCOR said PET recycling also got a boost from higher sales, as the PET bottle market, in units, recovered to 2008 levels.

“The negative growth in PET bottles and jars sold in the U.S. ended [in 2010] with a rebound more robust than many anticipated,” according to the NAPCOR report. “All beverage categories posted positive growth with juice, juice drinks, and ready-to-drink tea leading the way with double-digit increases. Carbonated beverages also saw growth before tailing off during the last two months of the year.”

The amount of PET collected and recycled in 2010 exceeded the annual nameplate PET recycling capacity in the United States — an estimated 1.465 billion pounds at the end of 2010. But there’s still a wide gap between nameplate capacity and available material, as slightly more than 50 percent of the PET collected was exported, leaving U.S. reclaimers with an available domestic supply of just 776 million pounds.

And that supply shortage is likely to get even more pronounced moving into 2011, as both Custom Polymers PET LLC in Athens, Ala., and CarbonLite Industries LLC in Riverside, Calif., added 100 million pound PET wash lines in the past five months.

What’s more, CarbonLite plans to add a second 100 million pound-per-year line in either 2012 or 2013, and it is likely that Clear Path Recycling LLC will move forward sooner than later with its second 120 million pound PET wash line in Fayetteville, N.C., that was originally scheduled to come on stream this year.

“We are going to have more reclamation capacity than [pounds of] bottles collected” in 2011, Schedler said.

But that is not deterring investments in PET reclamation capacity.

“While forecasts of domestic capacity being in equilibrium with total PET collection by the end of 2010 fell short, additional investments continued to be made and announced,” said the NAPCOR report.

“The primary driver of these investments is the short supply of RPET [recycled PET] flake and pellets,” NAPCOR said.

“This has prompted end users that anticipate a long-term need for RPET supply to either quietly back new merchant reclaimers, or to do it themselves on the premise that they have a better chance of procuring and processing bales than they do chasing supply of merchant flake.”

And while purchases of recycled PET by China have stayed virtually the same, the new domestic capacity is creating a new dynamic in the PET bale market, NAPCOR said.

“Where Chinese buyers drove prices on the West Coast, domestic buyers were the price setters on the East Coast”—triggered by the need to procure material for the substantial new investments companies made in both new and existing plants, said the NAPCOR report.

“Wellman, NURCC and Clear Path took material away that had in the past been bought by China,” Schedler said. “They will continue to be aggressive.”

What’s more, he believes that the CarbonLite plant in California — which began producing its initial recycled PET this month—will affect West Coast PET sales.

“I think what you are beginning to see is that we [the United States] can compete with China more favorably” in purchasing PET bales because of the new plants and the growing demand for recycled PET, Schedler said.

The continued expansions in capacity, despite the supply shortage of recycled PET, reflect the increasing use and demand for recycled PET, said the NAPCOR report.

Indeed, in 2010, the amount of recycled PET used in manufacturing increased by 7 percent and broke the 1-billion pound level for the first time, at 1.002 billion pounds. That’s nearly 43 percent more recycled PET than was used in manufacturing in 2001.

Fiber applications still remain the highest user of recycled PET, accounting for 38 percent of demand. But there has been significant growth in the past two years in the sheet market for packaging, and in food and beverage bottles.

Some 216 million pounds of recycled PET was used in food and beverage bottles in 2010, up from 141 million pounds in 2008. Demand from film and sheet applications more than doubled between 2006-2008 to 153 million pounds, and it now stands at 195 million pounds.

“This overhanging demand has created a dynamic that is both interesting and troubling,” the report said. “NAPCOR calculates that in order to meet RPET demand from publicly announced brand owner recycled content commitments — as well as current and projected demand from all other RPET applications — the PET bottle recycling rate would need to be at least 48 percent by 2013.”

“Up to this point,” the report continued, “the primary concerns of this industry — collection, design for recycling principles, and the use of recycled content — have been addressed voluntarily and inconsistently. The question is whether that sort of approach can support the current infrastructure and allow for the growth that will be necessary to make this a sustainable industry.”

This is the sixth year that NAPCOR, APR and the New York-based PET Resin Association have partnered to produce the annual PET recycling report.

Data for the report came from data generated internally at NAPCOR, PETRA and the International Bottled Water Association, as well as from surveys conducted by HDR Inc. and Moore Recycling Associates.

European PET container body Petcore and plastics recycling association EuPR
said European post-​sorting PET collection increased to 1.45 million tonnes in 2010, an increase of 6.5% compared to 2009.

Coca-​Cola Hellenic has pioneered the establishment of packaging recovery
organisations that collect, recycle and recover packaging waste in 19 countries in which it operates. In 2010, an estimated 79,000 tonnes of PET bottles which contained Coca-​Cola
Hellenic products were recovered.

The ultimate goal for Coca-​Cola Hellenic, which last year invested almost
€42m in recovering PET bottles, is to close the recycling loop by converting
used packages into new. In Austria, the Company co-​owns a bottle-​to-​bottle
recycling plant, which recycles up to 570 million
bottles each year.

Sabine Strnad, resources recovery manager at Coca-​Cola Hellenic, said: “It
is very rewarding to see that our efforts to recover used packaging are showing
results. At the same time we are striving to ensure that the industry
organisations in which we are active members are as effective as possible.

“We are committed to continuing our close cooperation with governments and
the industry in order to promote collection mechanisms, technological
innovations and sorting techniques. Our ultimate aim is to create truly
sustainable closed loop packaging solutions.”

Coca-​Cola Hellenic supports efforts by industry associations to work towards
a global standard of producer responsibility. More information about Coca-​Cola
Hellenic’s sustainability activities can be found in the Company’s online CSR
report.

Brussels — Petcore and EuPR have announced that European post-sorting PET collection reached 1.45 million tonnes in 2010, an increase of 6.5 percent on 2009. The overall collection rate in 2010 remained at 48.3 percent of all PET bottles on the market. Blowmoulding outlets grew with more than 25 percent of the resulting RPET, or nearly a quarter on a million tonnes, used to produce containers in 2010. The 2010 share of fibres as an end use for recycled PET flake decreased to 39 percent although the overall tonnage rose slightly.

The strapping market rebounded with the resumption of construction and manufacturing after the recent recession. Nearly 100,000 tonnes of RPET were used in this application in 2010. There was a 25,000 tonne decrease in RPET used in the APET sheet market. This was attributed to higher volumes of sheet imports and the price of suitable quality RPET almost matching that of virgin PET for most of the year.

Collection rate above the 22.5 percent target rate

It was estimated that there is a total mechanical reclamation capacity in the European region of 1.7 million tonnes. Exports to the Far East fell for a second year to 13 percent of collected PET and imports of baled PET bottles from outside the area were also smaller. All but two of the surveyed countries have a collection rate above the 22.5 percent target rate for plastic recovery set by the Packaging Waste Directive. The collection rate by country depends on the maturity and extent of their collection systems as well as economic instruments in place. Collection rates of over 70 percent are being recorded by many countries.

“I am delighted that PET collection increased again last year”, said Robert Bertaggia, Chairman of the Petcore Board. He further commented that “with every European country collecting PET bottles, the high year on year increases of earlier years had to fall, but the 6.5 percent increase in 2010 is an excellent result. The PET industry chain has worked with Compliance Agencies, National Bodies and European Recyclers to achieve a collection rate of nearly 50 percent of all PET bottles placed on the market”.

Capacity utilisation only 79 percent

The Chairman of the EuPR PET Working Group, Casper van den Dungen, agreed. “Capacity utilisation of our recycle plants is only 79 percent at present. This provides the challenge for municipalities, other collectors and industry to increase the current collection rate beyond 50 percent to load the recycling facilities already in place”. He continued: “Recycled PET is a reliable and sought-after feedstock in the PET value chain and sustainable, long life uses are being developed to utilise the growing supply of recycled PET. Whether PET bottles are recycled into another bottle, fibre, sheet, strapping tape or one of the new applications the energy saving will be significant”.

Petcore (PET containers recycling Europe) is a non-profit European trade association based in Brussels.

According to Petcore and EuPR, European post-sorting PET collection reached 1.45 million tonnes in 2010, an increase of 6.5 percent on 2009. The overall collection rate in 2010 remained at 48.3 percent of all PET bottles on the market.

Blowmolding outlets grew with more than 25 percent of the resulting rPET, or nearly a quarter on a million tonnes, used to produce containers in 2010. The 2010 share of fibers as an end use for recycled PET flake decreased to 39 percent although the overall tonnage rose slightly. The strapping market rebounded with the resumption of construction and manufacturing after the recent recession. Nearly 100,000 tonnes of rPET were used in this application in 2010. 

There was a 25,000 tonne decrease in rPET used in the APET sheet market. This was attributed to higher volumes of sheet imports and the price of suitable quality rPET almost matching that of virgin PET for most of the year. 

It was estimated that there is a total mechanical reclamation capacity in the European region of 1.7 million tonnes.

Exports to the Far East fell for a second year to 13 percent of collected PET and imports of baled PET bottles from outside the area were also smaller.

 All but two of the surveyed countries have a collection rate above the 22.5 percent target rate for plastic recovery set by the Packaging Waste Directive. The collection rate by country depends on the maturity and extent of their collection systems as well as economic instruments in place. Collection rates of over 70 percent are being recorded by many countries.

“I am delighted that PET collection increased again last year,” says Robert Bertaggia, chairman of the Petcore board. “With every European country collecting PET bottles, the high year-on-year increases of earlier years had to fall, but the 6.5 percent increase in 2010 is an excellent result. The PET industry chain has worked with compliance agencies, national bodies and European recyclers to achieve a collection rate of nearly 50 percent of all PET bottles placed on the market.”

The chairman of the EuPR PET Working Group, Casper van den Dungen, agrees. “Capacity utilization of our recycle plants is only 79 percent at present. This provides the challenge for municipalities, other collectors and industry to increase the current collection rate beyond 50 percent to load the recycling facilities already in place.”

Van den Dungen continues, “Recycled PET is a reliable and sought-after feedstock in the PET value chain and sustainable, long life uses are being developed to utilize the growing supply of recycled PET. Whether PET bottles are recycled into another bottle, fiber, sheet, strapping tape or one of the new applications the energy saving will be significant.”

Both chairmen emphasized that Petcore and EuPR will try to ensure that the growth in PET recycling continues. “This sustainable growth reflects the expectations of consumers who themselves are an important part of the recycle chain.”

Source: Petcore (PET containers recycling Europe)

Arafat Ara

Export earnings from Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) waste bottle flakes in the country may increase three fold in a year with the necessary policy support and patronisation from the government, a top industry leader said on Saturday.

Bangladesh Pet Flakes Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BPFMEA) president Sarwar Wadud Chowdhury said there is a large potential for PET bottle flakes in the oversea markets, predominantly used to produce polyester yarn and other items. However, due to the shortage of raw materials, the market is proving difficult to grab.

He said the sector is fully dependent on the local plastic PET bottles in the waste. These are frequently seen collected by poor women, young children, and urchins. Nevertheless, an adequate supply of the materials does not exist to meet global demands.

According to the BPFMEA, the locally produced pet flakes are 100 per cent export-oriented as there are no domestic factories for its utilisation.

“If the government allows importing used PET waste, the export volume of PET bottle flakes will stand at 100,000 tonnes by 2012, which presently only 30,000 tonnes, worth nearly Tk 1.00 billion,” the BPFMEA president said.

Around 90 per cent of the PET flakes are exported to China. South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam also import the product.

He mentioned that the export volume of the product was only 6,000 tonnes in 2001. Presently the sector is growing at a rate of 20 per cent per year.

Additionally, he said the country has bright prospects to earn substantial foreign currency like Indonesia through the PET waste. But the government considers the garbage as harmful and thus pollutant for the environment.

The sector’s insiders have reported that they are protecting the environment while collecting the PET waste bottles, all in conjunction with boosting the country’s economy. However, they lack the necessary support from the government to take the efforts further.

“We want to ensure the government that it (the PET waste) will not pollute the environment and only be used as raw materials,” said Mr Chowdhury.

Nearly 2,000 to 3,000 small and large PET waste producing factories exist in the country, involving nearly 1.0 million people.

In order to boost the sector, the government has been urged to first allow importing the PET waste bottles, reduce the Advance Income Tax (AIT) on export from 0.50 to 0.25 per cent, and increase the cash incentive from 10 to 20 per cent.

The industry insiders also called for withdrawing the VAT on the utility bill and vessel fare of exported goods.

“If the government approves such facilities, the industry can become a major sector in the economy, just like the Ready Made Garments (RMG) in the country,” the BPFMEA president concluded.

North American recyclers are benefiting from rising virgin resin prices and a cutback in competition from China. But experts say they still face many challenges, and there could be consolidation ahead.

“Some people [in the post-consumer PET market] are having troubles getting material and are nowhere near their stated capacity. A lot of people are not going to be able to stick it out,” said plastics recycling consultant Jean Bina, former key buyer and supply chain manager at Phoenix Technologies International LLC in Bowling Green, Ohio.

Another recycling executive also sees the boom in new recycling capacity eventually leading to consolidation. “With all the new plants being built for PET reclamation, not everyone is going to be able to survive. Only those that are strong financially will be able to stay in the game. The same holds true for [high density polyethylene] recyclers.”

One of the problems, said Bina, is that “too many people did not understand the supply chain and how it works.” The other is that the amount of PET needed to run existing recycling plants is nearly 1.5 billion pounds, and several expansions coming on line this summer will boost that by another 200 million to 300 million pounds.

“A lot of companies are trying to find their way and having their challenges,” Bina said. “There have been some misfires with people buying expensive equipment with bells and whistles and not understanding how the industry works.

“It is great to have this cool thing, but you have to have the ability to feed the beast,” she said. “There have been some good investments and some bad investments and some people have just fallen flat on their face.”

John Calhoun II, co-founder of Custom Polymers Inc. in Charlotte, N.C., which also owns Custom Polymers PET LLC in Athena, Ala. agreed.

“Washing bottles and putting out a quality product is quite tricky. Not everyone can do it,” Calhoun said.

One encouraging sign, at least for PET recyclers, is that “things are looking better” than a few months ago, said Mike Schedler, technical director for the National Association for PET Container Resources, based in Sonoma, Calif.

“NURRC [a joint venture recycling plant owned in part by Coca-Cola Co.] is no longer a buyer in the market. About 125 million pounds of capacity has been temporarily idled, and China is less of an issue than you might think they are,” he said. “In 2011, there will be more recycled PET available than ever.”

The Chinese have maintained their strong buying position on the West Coast, Schedler said, “but U.S. companies retook their position as the market leader in buying bales on the East Coast in the last three to four months. Most of what is being exported to China from the East Coast is stuff U.S. companies don’t want.”

He also said that the three major PET recycling plants in California scheduled to start up shortly will alter the buying situation on the West Coast.

“That will help ease things because those companies aren’t going to make those investments, then not match China’s prices,” Schedler said. “They are going to go get that material, so they can process more and get more to market.”

Besides, he said, California’s market development incentive payments — roughly 16 cents per pound — are scheduled to stay in place until 2016, and that’s more than enough to shift the buying scenario there. “Even a nickel would more than tip the balance,” he said.

In addition, some internal changes in China should benefit U.S. recyclers.

Costs are rising for Chinese recyclers as the government works to improve conditions for women and children. In addition, Chinese consumers are drinking more bottled water, giving recyclers there a new source of material — especially since the local recycling rate is around 90 percent.

“They can now buy cheaper and better in China than in the U.S.,” said one executive.

“I firmly believe that as China Westernizes its business models, [recyclers’] costs will rise and they will be much more selective and savvy about what they buy, and won’t be able to inflate prices in North America.,” Bina said.

“Five years ago there used to 10 Chinese buyers fighting over every bale, now it’s five — and shrinking.”

Despite the push for sustainability, green products and a lower carbon footprint, some customers are still wary of using post-consumer plastic.

“There is more than enough commitment to keep demand for recycled resins strong for the foreseeable future, but short-term, a lot of purchases boil down to economics,” said Byron Geiger, president of Custom Polymers PET.

“When recycled resin goes above virgin, people start to question [recycled resin’s] sustainability in the marketplace because the reality is that it costs more to run recycled resin than virgin resin,” Schedler said.

A case in point: One recycling company executive said a large container manufacturer is planning to make “very light” purchases of recycled resin over the next three months because demand from its customers has declined.

Some users of recycled plastics are “very cost-conscious,” said Scott Saunders, general manager of KW Plastics Recycling in Troy, Ala., and chairman of the Washington-based Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers.

“The key is that it has to be a good product and make economic sense,” Saunders said.

That’s also the view of Dan Slavin, president and CEO of thermoformer Dordan Manufacturing Co. Inc., which makes clamshells, trays and blister packs, mostly from PET, for consumer-goods packaging.

“I would like to say that all of our customers are utilizing recycled content for sustainability, but I’m not sure it’s an accurate statement,” he said. “A lot of times customers don’t want to be bothered with what’s going on and are only interested in what marketing says they can sell, or it comes back to what retailers want.

“But I think that the cycle is turning and people are starting to see the realities of science and making more informed decisions,” he said. “I think it’s starting when you look at the things brought into the market the last five years