He replaces the current Managing Director Bernard Merkx, who had been appointed for a transition period of 2 years since the departure of Alexandre Dangis on January 1st, 2023.

This decision follows the transformation of EuPC and is based on the fact that EuPC needs a full-time dedicated person with the right advocacy skills and network in Brussels to secure that the long-term interest of plastics converters are well positioned towards EU Regulators.

Paolo has more than 20 years’ experience in senior management, public affairs and communication roles across various organizations.

“Paolo worked previously for EuPC as Packaging Division manager and knows our industry very well and was until recently the secretary general of PCEP, so we believe he is the right fit for the future of our association”, said Benoit Hennaut, EuPC President.

Furthermore, we would like to thank Bernard for his activities at the head of EuPC for almost 2 years having assisted us in this management change and transition phase. Bernard will of course remain linked to our plastics network as manager of ESWA and PET Sheet Europe as well as co-founder of WFO.

“Returning to lead a team where I once began my professional career in Brussels is both an honour and a responsibility. As Managing Director, I am excited to build on our shared history, driving innovation and sustainability in the plastic conversion industry. Together, we will shape a future that reflects our values and expertise, turning challenges into opportunities for growth and success”, said Paolo Bochicchio.

With 50% of global plastic waste ending up in landfills and only 9% recycled, GR3N developed MADE, the Microwave Assisted DEpolymerisation solution. This process breaks down PET into its chemical building blocks that can be recombined to create new PET pellets with virgin-like quality for packaging and textiles, effectively closing the loop for difficult to recycle plastic. The technology is based on alkaline hydrolysis, and it can manage a higher amount of impurities compared to the existing ones.

In March 2024, GR3N successfully demonstrated MADE and the power of Schneider Electric’s open automation technology, EcoStruxure Automation Expert at its demonstration site in Italy. MADE plant is conceived to anticipate the usage of all the technologies that will be finally adopted for the first industrial-scale facility, foreseen to be installed in Spain and with an expected capacity of over 40,000 ton/year of PET waste treated. The intrinsic modularity of GR3N’s proprietary recycling process has allowed MADE to be the first plastic recycling plant to use the shared automation runtime managed by Universal Automation, based on the IEC 61499 standard.

The software-defined automation system decouples hardware from software, allowing devices and equipment to be freely connected across architecture layers, regardless of manufacturer. It acts as the digital backbone of industrial operations at the plant, providing the foundation to make more informed decisions. This approach allows MADE to be also technological demonstration of a new generation of automation systems, where the intertwining between OT and IT enables the exploitation of advanced functionalities for operations management and data analytics.

Due to EcoStruxure Automation Expert’s modular, agnostic nature, GR3N was able to choose the optimal technology for the demonstration plant and easily scale to new sites. Benefits include:

• Industrial scalability – significantly minimizes the risk of investment during the scale-up of GR3N’s technology towards the First of a Kind (FOAK) industrial plant, while offering a new way to protect its intellectual property as process licensor.
• Design flexibility – vendor and hardware-agnostic system enabled GR3N to design the best possible solution without being held back by vendor lock in or being impacted by supply chain issues.
• Engineering time and time-to-market reduction – the modular design of control software, supported by digital continuity across the whole plant lifecycle with automation-focused decision-making happening at conception, reduces human error at the development stage by 40%.
• Control simplification – Vendor-independence allows controls to be distributed or centralized depending on need.
• New opportunities – OT/IT integration provides new opportunities for efficiency and optimization across the entire value chain, thanks to a seamless incorporation of advanced data analytics techniques.
• Reduced costs – the software-defined approach to automation is expected to reduce engineering costs by 30%.
• Next-gen workforce – attracts the next generation of workers with a system that shared similarities with those in IT.

The partnership between GR3N and Schneider Electric, that has started with the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding, will enable the chemical
recycler to scale operations to new sites quickly and cost-effectively. The solution is expected to reach industrial scale by 2027 with the construction of a 35-40kta plant which will include the pre-treatment, depolymerization and repolymerization.

It aims to recycle 25% of India’s PET bottle waste by 2026.

The two new Starlinger recoSTAR PET 165 HC iV+ recycling lines are set up at the recycling facility of Ganesha Ecopet Private Ltd. in Warangal, Telangana State. The company, a subsidiary of Indian PET recycling pioneer Ganesha Ecosphere Ltd., already produces recycled PET flakes and pellets for food-grade packaging as well as for filament yarns and fibres on two Starlinger lines installed in 2022. The new recycling lines are in operation since mid-2024 and triple Ganesha Ecopet’s annual production of bottle-grade rPET, raising it from 14,000 tons to a total of 42,000 tons.

EPR and consumers drive demand for sustainable products

The increasing demand for food-safe recycled PET in India has two main reasons. On the one hand, the Indian government has introduced Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for importers, brand owners and plastic waste processors as part of its Plastic Waste Management (Amendment) Rules in 2022 to ensure systematic collection of plastic waste. In addition, the rules stipulate that brand owners and producers must include a 30% share of post-consumer recycled content in PET bottles by 2025, with the share being gradually increased each year to reach 60% by 2029.

On the other hand, consumer preferences in India are changing, with sustainability being one of the top five factors for purchasing a product. Especially the large number of young consumers —i.e. millennials and generation Z— are increasingly demanding products and packaging that do not harm our planet. Brands respond to that by creating supply chains and packaging that are circular and sustainable. Recycled PET is one of the most convincing options for plastic packaging, given its continuous recyclability and lower carbon footprint compared to other alternatives, while not compromising on production scale, durability, or quality.

Focusing on sustainable production, Ganesha Ecopet also minimized the process-related carbon emissions by recycling and reusing 95% of the consumed water as well as increasing the use of renewables in plant operations. With a total production capacity of 42,000 tons of food-grade recycled post-consumer PET per year, the PET recycling company caters to Indian, US, and European markets.

Incentives for improving the Indian waste management sector

Ganesha Ecopet sources post-consumer PET bottles from every possible channel: online, offline, and through more than 300 suppliers and aggregators across India. The Indian government has set a focus on improving the waste management sector. Due to the size and efficiency of the already existing informal waste collection network, through which around 95% of PET waste —one of the highest rates worldwide— in India is collected and recycled, the main goal is to optimize the current systems. There are various start-ups that are tackling multiple aspects, from piloting deposit return/refund schemes to online scrap marketplaces. The government also plays an important role by setting incentives for better Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practices and taxing unsustainable practices.

Hundreds of millions of tonnes of plastic waste are generated worldwide every year. Scientists are working tirelessly on new methods to recycle a large proportion of this waste into high-quality products, and thus enable a genuine circular economy. However, current recycling practices fall short of this goal. Most plastic waste is recycled mechanically: shredded and then melted down. Although this process does result in new plastic products, their quality deteriorates with each recycling step.

An alternative to this is chemical recycling, which avoids loss of quality. This method involves breaking down long-chain plastic molecules (polymers) into their fundamental building blocks (monomers), which can be reassembled into new, high-quality plastics, creating a truly sustainable cycle.

Fuels from plastic waste

As the approach of chemical recycling develops, the initial focus is on breaking down these long polymer chains into shorter-chain molecules that can be used as liquid fuels, say, or lubricants. This gives plastic waste a second life as petrol, jet fuel or engine oil. Scientists at ETH Zurich have now laid down important foundations for developing this process. These enable the global scientific community to engage in more targeted and effective recycling development work.

Researchers in the group led by Javier Pérez-Ramírez, Professor of Catalysis Engineering, investigated how to break down polyethylene and polypropylene with hydrogen. Here, too, the first step is to melt the plastic in a steel tank. Gaseous hydrogen is then introduced into the molten plastic. A crucial step involves adding a powdered catalyst containing metals such as ruthenium. By carefully selecting a suitable catalyst, researchers can increase the efficiency of the chemical reaction, promoting the formation of molecules with specific chain lengths while minimizing by-products such as methane or propane.

Rotational speed and geometry are key

“The molten plastic is a thousand times thicker than honey. The key is how you stir it in the tank to ensure the catalyst powder and hydrogen get mixed right through,” explains Antonio José Martín, a scientist in Pérez-Ramírez’s group. Through experiments and computer simulations, the research team demonstrated that the plastic is best stirred using an impeller with blades parallel to the axis. Compared to a propeller with angled blades or a turbine-shaped stirrer, this results in more even mixing and fewer flow vortices. The stirring speed is equally crucial. It must be neither too slow nor too fast; the ideal speed is close to 1,000 revolutions per minute.

The researchers successfully developed a mathematical formula to describe the entire chemical recycling process with all its parameters. “It’s every chemical engineer’s dream to have a formula like this at hand for their process,” Pérez-Ramírez says. All scientists in the research field can now precisely calculate the effect of the stirrer’s geometry and speed.
With this formula, future experiments can focus on directly comparing different catalysts with the influence of mixing under control. In addition, the principles developed here are central for scaling up the technology from the laboratory to large recycling plants. “But for now, our focus remains on researching better catalysts for the chemical recycling of plastics,” Martín says.

Read the paper

Earlier than usual, the Plastics Recycling Awards Europe 2025 are now open for entries. Participants from every part of the plastics recycling chain in Europe are invited to enter.

The seven award categories cover key areas of plastics recycling innovation and the major market applications for the circular use of plastics. They are:

• Plastics Recycling Ambassador
• Automotive, Electrical or Electronic Product
• Building & Construction Product
• Household & Leisure Product
• Plastic Packaging Product
• Product Technology Innovation
• Recycling Machinery Innovation

Brand owners, retailers, product manufacturers, product designers, packaging producers, raw material suppliers, plastics recycling machine manufacturers and suppliers of recycled plastic products are invited to submit their projects by Friday, 18 October 2024. Award winners will be announced on the second day of the Plastics Recycling Show Europe, which takes place at the RAI, Amsterdam from 1 to 2 April 2025.

Their use has increased sharply recently, and there are currently no methods for recycling such plastic medical waste. Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, in Sweden, have now shown how mixed waste from healthcare can be recycled in a safe and efficient way, using a technique where the material is heated and converted into chemical building blocks. This can then be used in the production of new plastic.

Disposable healthcare items today create enormous amounts of waste. In the best-case scenario, this waste is incinerated, but in many countries it ends up in landfills, and it can also be released into the environment. The COVID pandemic has contributed to an avalanche-like increase in disposable items being used. Worldwide, used face masks alone were estimated to weigh around 2,641 tonnes per day in 2022.

In circular economy policies, medical waste is often overlooked. Disposable healthcare items usually consist of several types of plastic that cannot be recycled with today’s technology. In addition, the items must be considered contaminated after use, and so, they must be handled so that risks of spreading potential infections are avoided. When it comes to the production of single-use healthcare items, it is also not possible to use recycled plastic, since the requirements for purity and quality are so high for materials intended for medical use.

These problems can all be solved with the new method developed by Chalmers researchers. The technology is called ‘thermochemical recycling’ and is based on a process called ‘steam cracking’. It breaks down the waste by mixing it with sand at temperatures up to 800 degrees Celsius. The plastic molecules are then broken apart and converted into a gas, which contains building blocks for new plastic.

“It can be compared to a thermal sledgehammer that smashes the molecules, and at the same time destroys bacteria and other microorganisms”, says Martin Seemann, Associate Professor at Chalmers’ Division of Energy Technology. “What is left are different types of carbon and hydrocarbon compounds. These can then be separated and used in the petrochemical industry, to replace fossil materials that are currently used in production.”

Great potential for saving valuable chemicals

To test the technology in real life, the researchers have carried out two different projects in parallel in a test facility at Chalmers Power Central. In the first project, a few different product types, such as face masks and plastic gloves, have gone through the process. In the second, a mixture was created that represents the average composition of hospital waste from the region’s hospitals. The mixture contained about ten different plastic materials, as well as cellulose.

The results have been consistently positive in both projects, which shows the great potential that exists in the technology. One of the projects was led by Judith González-Arias, now at the University of Seville in Spain.

“What makes this technology so exciting is its ability to handle the environmental challenges that we associate with medical disposables. Thermochemical recycling not only addresses the problem that medical waste is not recycled today, but also facilitates the recovery of valuable carbon atoms. This is fully in line with the principles of the circular economy and provides a sustainable solution to the urgent issue of medical waste management,” says Judith González-Arias.

The only option for products with strict requirements

Many manufacturers of healthcare materials today are very interested in creating a circular model where the products can be recycled and reused over again in a closed loop. But materials that are to be used in sterile articles in healthcare have strict requirements for purity and quality, which are basically impossible to meet with sorting and mechanical recycling of plastic. However, it would be possible with thermochemical recycling.

“It’s really the only option for this kind of waste to go really circular,” says Martin Seemann. “It is so elegant that once the material has been broken down to the molecular level, the chemical industry can turn it back into virgin material.”

“The same strict requirements for purity and quality actually also apply to food packaging. This is why the vast majority of plastic collected from packaging is incinerated today, or recycled into items where lower quality is allowed.

The two projects build on previous Chalmers research, which has shown how mixed plastic waste can be converted into raw material for new plastic products of the highest possible quality.

The technology works well, but other factors also come into play

To scale up the method, new material flows and functioning business models need to be established, in collaboration between the healthcare and recycling sectors. Laws and regulations at different levels may also need to be changed in order for thermochemical recycling to be widely implemented in society.

“Certain political decisions would increase the value of plastic waste as a raw material for industry, and increase the chances of creating functioning circular business models around this type of recycling. For example, a requirement for carbon dioxide capture, when incinerating plastic, would create incentives to instead invest in more energy-efficient alternative technologies such as ours,” says Martin Seemann.

Many countries have the technical prerequisites for recycling medical waste and other mixed plastic waste through steam cracking. However, regulations and structural conditions vary, which determines how actors in waste management, the chemical industry and product manufacturing would need to work together to create functioning value chains in different places in the world.

In Sweden, there is a great deal of interest in recycling within industry, but single-use items from healthcare do not in themselves create large enough waste volumes for a functioning circular business model. Around 4,000 tonnes of such plastic were put on the market in the country in 2019.

“To build a plant of the size required for profitable thermochemical recycling, you would have to ensure a material flow of around 100,000 tonnes per year before start-up,” says Judith González-Arias. Such amounts of waste exist in Sweden in total, but it is not just a matter of redirecting them from one type of recycling to another.

She says that new collaborations would therefore be needed between several actors for commercial thermochemical recycling, where healthcare waste could be part of the material flow. The process would be optimised if a Swedish plant was built in an existing chemical cluster, such as the one in Stenungsund. The Chalmers researchers have therefore collaborated with the company Borealis during the development of the technology.

In Sweden, there is a recycling quota for plastic that is not achieved today. The largest share goes to incineration instead. “Thermochemical recycling would become more beneficial with new political frameworks that create a recycling solution for our plastic-rich waste,” says Martin Seemann. “The technology is more energy-efficient than some other methods for recycling components in the plastic, such as carbon dioxide capture during incineration to use the carbon dioxide as a building block for new materials”.

“Sort4Circle” is the acronym of the technology that has emerged from consistent research and development and is now to be demonstrated as a pilot plant in Freiburg.

In the development project, which is funded by the state of Baden-Württemberg as part of the Invest BW funding line, the state-owned Umwelttechnik BW GmbH is also involved as an associated partner in order to support the marketability and exploitation of the results in addition to the technical development.

The development project aims to significantly increase the recycling rate of plastic waste.

The patented Sort4Circle technology differs fundamentally from today’s sorting processes, which are primarily aimed at packaging plastics and the separation and concentration of a small number of material groups. Sort4Circle®, on the other hand, makes it possible for the first time to quickly and precisely identify individual packaging and other sorting objects and assign them directly to very pure and therefore better recyclable material groups.

The technology implements three central innovations: Continuous object singulation, combined with precise detection and correct object placement into a flexible number of fractions.

A newly developed detector module simultaneously measures material characteristics such as colour, image, polymer type (using NIR technology) and fluorescent marker, which enables reliable sorting into pure fractions.

The tracer-based sorting (TBS) technology patented by Polysecure, which uses fluorescent additives to ensure reliable identification of objects regardless of their composition, is thus also being pursued further.

Polysecure is developing and building the pilot system. In this context, Pforzheim University is generating economic, technical and ecological data for the recycling of plastic streams.

In addition, the project consortium is conducting a Germany-wide collection and sorting study in order to analyse the quality and quantity of the plastic waste generated and to generate basic design data for the further development of the Sort4Circle® process.

These updates follow intensive testing commissioned earlier this year with a focus on a comprehensive alignment of the Guidelines’ structure. The review included a restructuring of the decoration sections, in particular, to clarify the impact of inks and labels on recycling.

‘Considering the recent legislative developments at the European level, RecyClass is more committed than ever to provide the industry with the most up-to-date recommendations for improving circularity of plastic packaging,’ said Paolo Glerean, Chairman of RecyClass.

As a result of the collaboration with independent testing facilities, RecyClass further investigated the behaviour of common packaging technologies during recycling processes. These tests were conducted according to standardised testing methods, as described in the RecyClass Recyclability Evaluation Protocols.

Notable additions to the Guidelines include a more precise definition of adhesives for labels on HDPE, PP and PS rigids and updated recommendations for PO foamed liners for HDPE. A technical review of HDPE tube size sorting will also be available following the results shared by STINA.

For PE Films, EVOH/metallisation and laminating adhesive combination can now be directly certified without testing, provided they follow the Guidelines’ recommendations. Additionally, PP-based plastomers are now recognised as fully compatible with the PE stream if they represent up to 15 % of the total weight of the packaging. When it comes to PET bottles, the design for recycling recommendations have been refined with a better definition for clear, light blue and coloured transparent PET bottles, together with additional guidance on PET closures.

The latest design recommendations have been integrated into the RecyClass Online Tool and the RecyClass Recyclability Certification Schemes. Looking ahead, ongoing testing campaigns will soon be concluded and further enhance the RecyClass Design for Recycling Guidelines on TPS, adhesives, inks and PVOH, among others.

Recent and upcoming European legislation and directives as for WEEE and automotive components are guiding the polymer industry towards circular economy and a higher degree of usage of recycled polymers.

While recyclers are improving with technologies to separate plastic waste and to develop new compounds out of PIR (post-industrial recycling) and PCR (post consumer recycling) materials, the processing industry has different challenges.

One of the key concerns today is maintaining consistent part quality during the injection process when using compounds with recycled content. The fluctuations in material quality appear batch to batch, bag to bag, or sometimes cycle to cycle.

Recyclers and machine producers are already developing different processes to ensure the material quality to the best degree and to adjust the machine parameters a good as possible to the changing material sheets.

However, these technologies cannot see or interfere, once the material leaves the nozzle and enters the mold. Current technologies like pressure sensors cannot look through the material or the product and are handicapped to a certain degree.

Exactly this in-line detection of anomalies inside the molding process is the focus of Avidens. With new developed DEA (dielectric analysis) sensors, this technology looks at the behaviour of the polymer inside the cavity. The complete picture and behaviour around viscosity and plastification are monitored and collected during every shot. Later, this data is processed with the help of artificial intelligence and compared to pre-collected datasets, which allows a direct live in-line feedback to the machine to adjust parameters according to the observed anomalies.

Avidens is a cooperation between Sensxpert, Schwarz Plastic Solutions, Netzsch Analyzing & Testing and Precupa. At the upcoming Fakuma exhibition Avidens wants to present the first use cases to the industry.

Carsten Heuer joined REHAU Industries SE & Co. KG. in 2017, where he is also a member of the Executive Board. Before joining REHAU Industries, he was Managing Director at Schollglas Holding and Executive Senior Vice-President at Schüco International KG. Carsten Heuer joined the VinylPlus Steering Board in 2023.

Carsten Heuer succeeds Myriam Tryjefaczka, Tarkett, in the role. The VinylPlus General Assembly thanks Myriam for her four years of vice-chairwomanship and her dedication to VinylPlus’ mission.

Following his election, Carsten Heuer said: “There is the clear necessity for strengthening a competitive and resilient EU industry while aligning and supporting the European Green Deal. This means that a strong European industrial policy also is the backbone of social, economic, and environmental sustainability in the European PVC sector providing increasingly sustainable solutions across vital sectors.

The exhibition and conference that took place recently in Amsterdam attracted more than 10,000 attendees for the first time in its history.

With more than 480 exhibiting companies and organisations (155 of which exhibiting for the first time), and over 70 expert speakers, the event’s total attendance over two days was a record 11,273.

“Without question, PRS Europe has become the place to be for anyone interested in the circular use of plastics,” says Ton Emans, Plastics Recyclers Europe’s President. “Here you can see the cutting edge of recycling technology, find inspiration from the leading innovators and seek out partners with the know-how to make plastic products circular. This year has been a brilliant showcase for our industry, what it has achieved and what it can achieve in the future.”

Plastics Recycling Show Europe moves to Halls 1 and 5 at RAI Amsterdam from 1-2 April 2025.

“We have put a lot of effort into developing this technology. I am therefore particularly delighted to accept this award on behalf of the entire team today,” says Robert Obermayr, Head of the Powerfil business unit at Erema, at PRSE 2024 in Amsterdam. The Discharge Pro system automatically compensates for fluctuations in the input material, thereby ensuring uniform thickening during melt filtration and thus a consistent process. Depending on the application and contamination, Powerfil was able to reduce melt loss by up to 50 percent with the DischargePro compared to the previous Erema laser filter control system. These facts convinced the jury, who described the technology as an intelligent technological advance in the extrusion process.

With the DischargePro control system, Powerfil significantly increases the degree of automation in the filter process. The innovative discharge control system reacts to specific disruptions in the process. In this way, the speed of the scraper star is adjusted at short notice and returns to the setpoint speed as soon as the contamination peak has been discharged. Furthermore, the control system also recognizes changes in throughput and adjusts the discharge rates accordingly. In the event of a higher pressure drop across the filter screen, which is caused by a higher viscosity of the melt, DischargePro adjusts the setpoint value to ensure a consistent discharge rate. Long-term changes, such as the condition of the filter screen, are also taken into account in all adjustments.

In the automotive industry, the use of plastic materials for the exterior and interior of vehicles is gradually increasing with the replacement of traditional materials such as metal. Plastic parts help reduce vehicle weight and, therefore, CO2 emissions. Moreover, as one of the world’s greatest consumers of plastics, the automotive industry is steadily increasing the percentage of recycled plastic to produce more sustainable vehicles and reduce their environmental impact.

With the aim of facilitating the use of recycled and renewable materials in the automotive sector, AIMPLAS, the Plastics Technology Centre, has launched the SURFTOP Project, with funding from the Valencian Institute of Competitiveness and Innovation (IVACE+i) and the ERDF. The project focuses on studying the effects of using recycled material to manufacture parts for the interior and exterior of vehicles and aims to establish and develop technologies that make it possible to comply with vehicle interior air quality (VIAQ) requirements while maintaining the surface properties established by manufacturers.

As explained by Sergio Mayor Aroca, a researcher at the Automotive and Transportation Laboratory at Aimplas, “Improving the quality of recycled materials from cars is key to using them more in the sector. SURFTOP is part of a circular economy strategy because it focuses on obtaining recycled raw materials from automotive industry waste for the manufacture of new parts that will be analysed in terms of volatile and semi-volatile compounds, as well as surface properties, to comply with the requirements established by the automotive industry for parts designed for interior and exterior use.”

The surface properties of plastics refer to the material’s surface characteristics, which can affect its appearance (gloss, colour, roughness), bonding capacity (especially for parts that will be painted) and resistance to wear, impact, scratching and chemical agents. Furthermore, inside the vehicle, it is necessary to guarantee low emissions of volatile organic compounds and odours from recycled plastic materials to comply with the requirements of manufacturers.

This project also involves Prisma Soporte Industrial, a company that handles injection moulding and painting of automotive parts, and which will help validate the process and functionality of the recycled materials so they comply with the quality and emission requirements of the final parts and will also help transfer the results. The recycling company GBP Metal Group will provide post-consumer recycled materials from specific car parts.

Chemical recycling is an important approach in the circular economy. It enables the reuse of plastic waste that is too complex to process using mechanical recycling methods but too valuable to dispose of. In chemical recycling, plastics are broken down into their chemical components and used as raw materials for the production of new plastics. This helps to reduce the consumption of fossil resources and prevent environmental pollution from plastic waste. At IFAT, Vecoplan informed experts about the measures it intends to take to intensify its expertise in this area in the long term and entered into a close strategic partnership with Pla.to Technology.

“Vecoplan has more than 50 years of experience in the processing of recyclable materials – the basis for the production of recyclates,” explains Martina Schmidt, Head of the Recycling I Waste division at Vecoplan. “We are definitely one of the pioneers in this field and can demonstrate a high level of innovation.” The chemical processing of plastics is also becoming increasingly important for the processing technology expert. Two years ago, Vecoplan laid the foundations for this with the introduction of a pioneering cleaning process and the commissioning of the “Cleanikum” – a demonstration and test facility near the headquarters in the Westerwald. But now the company is going one important step further.

Partnership for added customer value

Plato Technology, based in Görlitz, offers durable and wear-resistant cleaning processes for economical used plastic recycling and already has 20 years of experience with established systems. This is the best basis for Vecoplan to enter into a strategic partnership in the field of cleaning. With the combination of Vecoplan’s high level of expertise in recyclable material processing and Pla.to’s experience in the various cleaning processes, customers will in future receive processing solutions from a single source. Over the past few years, the two partners have perfectly coordinated their proven technologies in various tests.

Common goals with common values

“We have had joint customers since 2007 and our systems complement each other perfectly to ensure a high level of customer satisfaction.,” says Heinz Schnettler, General Manager of Pla.to. The two companies follow the same values and principles, and mutual trust plays a central role for both. “Only if we maintain an open and constructive working relationship can we react flexibly and creatively to the constantly changing requirements of our customers,” Martina Schmidt is certain.

In-depth keynotes, presentations, and discussions were held on the current political and regulatory landscape, focusing on strategies and paths to undertake to achieve an even further circular future for plastic packaging. We delved into the challenges and opportunities presented by the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) and addressed the challenges and opportunities posed by other pivotal pieces of legislation. These include the Construction Product Regulation (CPR), the Ecodesign Sustainable Product Regulation (ESPR), and the End-of-Life-Vehicles Regulation proposals.

Another session highlighted the benefits of plastic products in the EU’s plan to achieve net-zero emissions and decarbonisation by 2050, focusing on increasing raw material circularity. Currently, plastics converting companies own and operate 65% of Europe’s mechanical recycling capacity. A forecast for available volumes by 2040 was presented, and industry partners announced plans for additional multi-billion Euro investments, creating additional new jobs in the sector.

The European plastics converting industry is among the most creative and innovative backbones of the EU economy. The industry will continue to play a leading role in the increased sustainability and circularity efforts across all industrial sectors, including aerospace and mobility, leisure and sports, health and safety, food and transport packaging, robotics and digitalisation. It also allows considerable and crucial energy savings in the construction sector.

Despite the plastics converting industry’s solid track record, innovation remains crucial for future challenges. Presentations highlighted how ongoing research and advancements promote a more circular EU economy. Key players, including EU and Member States authorities and value chain partners, were identified to address current barriers, enabling increased investments in advanced recycling technologies and the use of recycled materials in future products.

The last session of the Conference focussed on advocacy, communication, and best practices and ended with a panel discussion on the EU-funded project Chemskills. During the discussion, both industry and academia representatives had the opportunity to engage in an interesting debate on the current skills shortage in the plastics industry. The industry is gradually evolving towards digitalisation, and the need to upskill the workforce in a process of adaptation toward the use of advanced technologies.

The EuPC 2025 Conference will take place in Brussels on 19-20 June 2025.

In addition to mechanical processing of used PET bottles, the recycling system encompasses all process steps leading up to extrusion with a ZSK twin screw extruder, including pelletizing and an SSP (Solid State Polycondensation) reactor.

This PET bottle recycling system is designed for a throughput of 5,500 kg/h. It will deliver PET recyclate that is approved by the European Food Safety Administration (EFSA) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for direct contact with food. Moreover, the PET pellets manufactured on this bottle-to-bottle line are brand owner approved.

Magpet awarded the contract for the entire system to Coperion and Herbold Meckesheim, as they have optimally coordinated their technologies and realized efficient plastic recycling solutions that consistently and reliably deliver high PET recyclate quality.

Coperion’s and Herbold Meckesheim’s bottle-to-bottle plants enable all recyclates to be processed together, even if they exhibit different IV (Intrinsic Viscosity) values or fluctuating bulk densities. What is more, the solution saves on operating costs, logistics costs, and energy consumption in comparison to conventional PET recycling processes.

The bottle-to-bottle recycling system first processes the PET bottles into flakes. For this purpose, Herbold uses granulators with forced feeding and washing system technologies that efficiently and gently process the PET to minimize material loss due to fines formation and thus maximize yield.

This preprocessing is followed by conveying and feeding into the ZSK recycling twin screw extruder. There, the PET regrind is gently melted, intensively dispersed, and processed into a homogeneous mass. The ZSK’s twin screw technology efficiently transfers the energy into the melt. Thanks to the twin screw extruder’s high 18 Nm/cm³ torque, the PET’s residence time in the extruder is short. Processing takes place at low temperatures, polymer chain degradation is minimal, and the product quality achieved is high. Volatile components such as monomers, oligomers, and water are removed from the melt and purged.

Following discharge from the ZSK recycling extruder, the still-warm material stream is transferred via a gear pump to an underwater granulator and an SSP reactor, where it is then condensed and decontaminated.

The briefing also highlights the introduction of a new monitoring tool where people, policy makers and others can check progress on plastics circularity in Europe.

The monitoring tool, which is one of the thematic modules of the broader Circularity Metrics Lab, looks at progress made on the circularity of plastics across Europe. It provides detailed insights into the circularity of plastics, with technical information for policymakers, stakeholders, and the public. The module will be updated annually with the latest data and new data streams as they emerge.

The EEA’s Circularity Metrics Lab encompasses a wide array of metrics on the transition to a circular economy. This initiative addresses the unsustainable patterns of plastics production and consumption, which contribute significantly to waste, pollution, climate change and other environmental impacts.

Together with the new monitoring tool, the new EEA briefing ‘The role of plastics in Europe’s circular economy’ indicates that the consumption of plastics is projected to rise both in Europe and globally.

The briefing compiles data from diverse sources to assess the current state of plastics production and consumption, and its environmental and climatic repercussions. It also explores strategies for transitioning Europe towards a circular economy for plastics.

The thematic module on plastics supports the EU’s contribution to international efforts to curb plastic pollution. The United Nations International Negotiating Committee (INC) is crafting an international, legally binding agreement to eliminate plastic pollution, including marine pollution. A critical component of these discussions is the establishment of robust monitoring mechanisms to support and track the commitments that may be finally agreed in that international process.

The EEA’s European Topic Centre on Circular Economy and Resource Use has produced a supporting report highlighting knowledge gaps and suggests improvements on data collection and monitoring efforts. Currently, most data on plastics production and consumption originate from industry, suggesting a need for greater involvement from public authorities.

Key insights from the plastics monitoring tool:

• Plastic consumption in Europe is high and expected to grow in line with projected increases in global plastics production.
• The consumption and production of plastics negatively affect the environment and contribute to climate change. More marine litter is washing up on Europe’s beaches, high levels of microplastics are entering the environment, and future growth in plastic consumption means greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the value chain are likely to increase as a result.
• The circularity of plastics material is increasing at a slow pace. Nevertheless, there are encouraging trends: mechanical recycling capacity is increasing, EU exports of plastics waste are decreasing, bioplastics production capacity is growing slowly, as is the use of recycled plastics.
• Developing a circular economy is critical to making plastics more sustainable and is a central aim of the EU in its plastic strategy and recent legislation related to plastics and is part of the negotiations of the UN treaty to end plastic pollution.

Recovering biodegradable plastic waste through anaerobic co-digestion treatment with sludge from sewage treatment plants (STP) to obtain a biogas stream that can be used as an energy vector and a digestate for agriculture.

This is the main objective of Valplast(Recovery of bioplastics through anaerobic co-digestion at sewage treatment plants), a strategic project in which a consortium of members participates, including Aimplas, the Calagua Group UPV-UV Mixed Unit, and the companies Global Omnium Medioambiente and Fych Technologies.

The project, financed by the Valencian Institute of Competitiveness and Innovation (IVACE+i) within the framework of the European Union’s 2023 strategic cooperation projects, seeks to implement an alternative to current management of biodegradable plastic packaging waste that is aligned with circular economy principles.

“The main innovation of the project involves understanding that bioplastics are a resource that can be recovered and transformed into green energy”, according to researchers participating in the project.

The aim will therefore be to study, at laboratory and pilot scale, the degradation of different plastics through biological treatment with sludge from municipal sewage treatment plants under anaerobic conditions. The possible effects of the additives used in the synthesis of plastics (conventional and bioplastics) in the anaerobic treatment process and the subsequent quality of the digested sludge will also be evaluated, given that its main application is agricultural use.

Work will also be done on the development and optimization of pilot plant instrumentation and control systems, as well as the analysis of costs and the life cycle. As consortium members highlighted, “They are essential to be able to evaluate the environmental and economic sustainability of the proposed treatment”.

After the recovery process, analysis will be carried out to measure the presence of microplastics in the sludge. For this analysis, the methodology developed by AIMPLAS in previous projects will be used. This method makes it possible to measure these emerging contaminants in both wastewater and the sludge generated at treatment plants.

This process will be used to develop a methodology for energy recovery from bioplastics at STP digesters for better management of these wastes resulting in greater energy recovery.
Also of note is the previous experience that part of this consortium acquired during implementation of and collaboration on other R&D projects related to the goal of this project.

It enables the reuse of plastic waste that is too complex to process using mechanical recycling methods, but too valuable to dispose of. In chemical recycling, plastics are broken down into their chemical components and used as raw materials for the production of new plastics. This helps to reduce the consumption of fossil resources and prevent environmental pollution from plastic waste. At IFAT, Vecoplan informed experts about the measures it intends to take to intensify its expertise in this area in the long term and entered into a close strategic partnership with Pla.to Technology.

Pla.to Technology, based in Görlitz, offers durable and wear-resistant cleaning processes for economical used plastic recycling and already has 20 years of experience with established systems. This is the best basis for Vecoplan to enter into a strategic partnership in the field of cleaning. With the combination of Vecoplan’s high level of expertise in recyclable material processing and Pla.to’s experience in the various cleaning processes, customers will in future receive processing solutions from a single source. Over the past few years, the two partners have perfectly coordinated their proven technologies in various tests.

The collaboration aims at driving circularity in plastics value chains and the automotive industry. When no longer fit for use, tires are liquefied by means of chemical recycling and then processed into base chemicals and further into polycarbonates of high purity. These can then be used in various automotive applications, from parts of headlamps to radiator grilles.

As part of the collaboration, Neste turns liquefied discarded tires into a high-quality raw material for polymers and chemicals manufacturing and supplies it to Borealis. Borealis will then process the Neste-produced raw material into base chemicals phenol and acetone, which are supplied to Covestro. Covestro can use these materials to make polycarbonates. The share of recycled content is attributed via the mass balancing approach all the way to the final products using ISCC Plus certification.

The first products based on the collaboration are already available as each party has manufactured the first batch of their respective contribution to the project. Aside from polycarbonates, the project partners may also consider polyurethanes as a possible end product, which could also find its way into parts of the interior of a car. The companies emphasize that the potential to scale up these types of developments should be considered when setting ambitious targets for future EU regulations, such as the End-of-Life Vehicles Regulation.