Strategy impossible?
Producers of virgin PET in Europe buy their raw materials to an industry specification and at a price that is related to the price of oil and the supply/demand balances of the materials. This means that PET producers in every country will pay roughly the same price for their requirements - related to published contract prices. This is not the case for PET recyclers - according to Petcore (PET Containers Recycling Europe). They source their raw materials (baled PET bottles) from every country in Europe, and each country’s collection system is different, in fact the collection and sorting systems can vary from municipality to municipality. These different systems result in bales of varying quality and composition. Recyclers in different countries will be equipped differently to deal with their domestic bales. As well as different collection and sorting systems in each country, the costs and financial instruments are specific to each country. A recycler will have to pay one price for a French bale and another for an Italian bale. The difference between the highest and lowest contract price can be more than 100% for roughly the same quality.
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