the beginning of industrial maturity?

For around ten years, Europe has taken seriously the subject of pollution plasticin particular that of single-use plastic packaging.

A very concrete application of these European regulatory mechanisms comes into force from 2025 with the incorporation of at least 25% Recycled Raw Materials (MPR) in new PET plastic bottles (commonly used for mineral water and soda) with the corollary of the obligation to collect the latter separately with an efficiency of at least 77% by 2027 in order to promote their circularity and prevent them from ending up in incineration or landfill.

Another key regulation for recycling (whether mechanical or chemical), since 2018 EU member countries have aimed to recycle at least 55% of packaging by 2030.

Finally, the brand new regulations PPWR which will come into force at the end of the year – beginning of 2025, will require manufacturers placing on the market to incorporate between 50 and 65% MPR by 2040 in the new packaging. This last measure is therefore key for chemical recycling because a large part of plastic waste, although recycled, does not fit into a 100% circular logic (from bottle to bottle for example).

Either because the physico-chemical characteristics of plastic waste do not allow a return to the properties of the virgin product, or for fear of too great a risk of micropollution from these recycled resins at the level of human health. Thus, the EFSA (European Environment Agency) only issues authorizations to place mechanically recycled resins on the market sparsely. Around 9 Mt of so-called “contact-sensitive” packaging because it comes into contact with the body (out of 22 Mt of packaging in total) are affected.

The chemical recyclingthanks to its material regeneration properties at the molecular level (monomer or polymer) allows this return to the top of the recycling chain and ensures total circularity of plastics despite a lower yield than mechanical recycling.