Environment

Two new members entered the Cracker of the Future consortium, accelerating the development of a game changing technology for the electrification of the steam cracking process. This enables a revolutionary decrease in greenhouse gas emissions. They are the Italian Versalis and the Spanish Repsol, and now...

At the fruit and vegetables international fair Fruit Attraction 2021, running in Madrid from 5 to 7 October, the Bolognese company Ilip is exhibiting several innovations related to the "closed loop" of packaging materials, including, in particular, the T2T R-PET process, i.e. the "tray-to-tray" use of recycled PET...

TÜV Austria’s OK Recycled certification scheme addresses the issues raised by EU Directive 2019/904 on the reduction of the influence of certain plastic products on the environment. PET bottles are to be made of at least 25% recycled plastic by 2025 and 30% by 2030 - for all bottles. The objective of the OK Recycled scheme is...

On September 27, the European Commission welcomes an important new step taken by the Circular Plastics Alliance to boost the EU market for recycled plastics and ensure at least 10 million tonnes are recycled by 2025. Since the launch of the alliance in 2018, good progress has been made with an increase of almost 30% in the...

The new range IrgaCycle of additive solutions has been launched by Basf to address the imminent needs in plastics recycling. The plastics industry is seeking ways to incorporate higher content of recycled polymeric material in all major applications to meet sustainability goals, while facing growing consumer concerns and...

The NextChem subsidiary dedicated to waste-to-chemical technologies, MyRechemical, and Johnson Matthey, a global leader in sustainable technologies, will jointly cooperate to commercially develop "waste-to-methanol" technology worldwide. This waste-to-methanol technology has its roots in the chemical conversion of non-recyclable municipal waste...

European plastics producers call for a mandatory EU recycled content target for plastics packaging of 30% by 2030. An enabling policy framework and collaboration with the value chain are essential to reach target. PlasticsEurope endorses the objective of preventing and reducing excessive packaging...

The process of a constitutional bill that includes the environment into the fundamental principles of the Constitution of Italy - laying the foundations for the necessary balance between the environmental interests with those of the economic stakeholders - is now well underway. The constitutional bill in question, which...

In 2020, packaging recycling rates in Italy exceeded all forecasts. The health emergency did not slow down the development of this area of the circular economy: last year 73% of the packaging placed on the market was recycled, that is 3.3% more than in 2019. These figures were disclosed by the Conai (Italian packaging consortium) on the...

The global science-based company, DSM, and the global leader in the chemical industry, Sabic announced a collaboration to create recycled-based Dyneema. Through a joint pilot with multiple CirculariTeam members, the manufacturing and usage of Dyneema using mixed plastic waste as feedstock (via mass balance approach) will be...

Manufacturer of plastic and glass containers for the pharmaceutical industry, Bormioli Pharma has announced that by 2025 its products will be manufactured from 50% sustainable raw materials, such as recycled plastic and glass, and bioplastics. This target will see the company tripling the proportion of...

Thailand-based Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited (IVL), one of the world’s largest producer of recycled PET for beverage bottles, announced it will build a facility in Karawang, West Java, to recycle almost 2 billion plastic bottles a year in support of the government’s plan to reduce ocean debris...

The association of European plastics processors, EuPC, highlights the negative consequences of the strict deadlines imposed by the SUP (Single-Use Plastics) directive on the legislative activity and markets of the European Union member States. In a press release it points out that the deadline of July 3, 2021, for the...

The Lego Group unveiled a prototype Lego brick made from recycled plastic, the latest step in its journey to make Lego products from sustainable materials. The new prototype, which uses PET plastic from discarded bottles, is the first brick made from a recycled material to meet the company’s strict quality and safety requirements...

The chemical company of Eni, Versalis, and the engineering and technological platform for sustainability, Saipem, have signed an agreement to internationally promote Proesa, Versalis’ proprietary technology used to produce sustainable bioethanol and chemicals from lignocellulosic biomass...

Automotive polyamide circularity? Thanks to the project CarE-Service - that has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme with the goal to develop innovative circular economy business models for the automotive industry, and that entered its final phase - it is feasible...

Fraunhofer Institute Umsicht, SABIC and Procter & Gamble announced their collaboration in an innovative circular economy pilot project which aimed to demonstrate the feasibility of closed-loop recycling of single-use facemasks. Due to Covid-19, use of billions of disposable facemasks is raising environmental...

At the VinylPlus Sustainability Forum (VSF) 2021 #Towards2030, VinylPlus officially launched VinylPlus 2030, the next 10-year Commitment of the European PVC industry to sustainable development. Through VinylPlus, the entire PVC value chain worked together with its stakeholders to build bottom-up the next Commitment...

Single-Use Plastics directive guidelines are a long list of inconsistencies and questions left unanswer. This is the criticism that EuPC, the European association of plastics converters, moves to the provision of the European Commission which will come into force shortly. With almost one year of delay on the timetable set by the Singe-Use Plastics…

At the completion of its second 10-year Voluntary Commitment to sustainable development, the European PVC industry takes stock of its achievements and looks ahead to 2030. Among the main results, which are summarised in the VinylPlus Progress Report 2021 published on May 17, the continuous development of collection and recycling...