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Members of the ENVI Committee of the European Parliament voted today on the Report amending the Single Use Plastics (SUP) Directive proposed by the European Commission. Led by Ms. Frederique RIES, Rapporteur for the ENVI Committee of the European Parliament (BE, ALDE), the Report set a target of 35% of recycled content in beverage bottles by 2025.

With BIR holding its latest Convention in London, Brexit and its consequences provided a regular point of debate during the course of the two-day event – most prominently at the International Environment Council meeting on October 6 chaired by Olivier François of Galloo.

World output of stainless steel leapt 7.6% in 2016 and a further 6.7% in 2017 – but “a turning point” has been reached and the rate of increase can be expected to slow to perhaps 3.4% in 2018 and 2.6% in 2019, according to Jim Lennon, Senior Commodities Consultant at UK-based Macquarie Capital (Europe) Ltd.

In his final Chairman’s address to the BIR Plastics Committee after 12 years at its helm, Surendra Borad Patawari of Gemini Corporation NV in Belgium enthused: “There cannot be a better proposition than the business of plastics recycling.”

Hitachi Zosen Inova (HZI) builds Germany’s 22nd Kompogas plant and is supplying the plant in Anröchte (in the district of Soest in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia) with a Kompogas steel digester with integrated feeder, a gas storage facility and two cogeneration plants for needs-based power generation. 

The recycling industry remains one of the world’s “best-kept secrets” and its story needs to be told to future generations in order to help them in the preservation of the planet. So said BIR World President Ranjit Singh Baxi at the latest meeting of the World Council of Recycling Associations (WCRA), at which he made major announcements surrounding Global Recycling Day.

The World Steel Association (Worldsteel) has launched the 2018 edition of Sustainable Steel – Indicators 2018 and industry initiatives.

Research and development projects are under way in several countries aimed mainly at recovering natural/synthetic fibres to provide the garment industry with new raw materials or transforming/agglomerating textile materials essentially for insulation purposes.

Waste cooking oil collected from cafes and restaurants has been used to make a controlled-release fertiliser that results in better plant health and less wasted nutrients.

A waste and resource management specialist from within the UK government’s Department for International Trade has expressed confidence that a Brexit agreement will be reached between the UK and the rest of the EU.

New provisions such as the circular economy package from the EU have given a huge boost to the use of recycled materials. Alpla welcomes this development, but is calling for consistent thinking and actions.

At the end of September, Brussels hosted the kick off meeting of a new European research project, polynSPIRE, aimed at improving the overall performance of plastics recycling looking for a more sustainable plastic value chain.