Plastics

Southeast and East Asia plays a central role in the global effort to tackle plastic pollution, given its substantial share of the global economy, strategic position in plastics value chains and rapidly rising plastics demand, according to a new OECD report.

Multilayer plastic materials present a major challenge at the end of their life cycle due to the complexity of separating and processing their different components. This difficulty leads to lower recycling efficiency and increases the amount of waste ending up in landfills or incinerators.

It defies the ravages of time again and again and celebrates an almost endless comeback – the record. A traditional company from Haarlem is partly responsible for the previous peak in the seventies, as well as for the modern boom: Record Industry.

Regulatory uncertainty, multi-material compositions, limited collection rates and a competitive landscape pose significant challenges for polyethylene terephthalate (PET) tray recycling in Europe, but the industry is working to make it a reality, albeit at a slower pace than some would like.

The European Food Safety Authority EFSA confirms the compliance of the decontamination performance of the Recostar PET art recycling process from Starlinger in a positive “Scientific Opinion” based on the new regulation in force since 2022.

RecyClass has released significant updates to its Design for Recycling Guidelines and Recyclability Evaluation Protocols, reflecting the latest scientific findings and ongoing collaboration across the plastic packaging value chain.

The first set of RecyClass Recyclability Evaluation Protocols for Automotive and Electrical & Electronic Equipment (EEE) has been published following intense collaboration with the plastic value chain.

Detecting wear on key components at an early stage minimises the risk of unscheduled downtime in plastics recycling. Erema’s PredictOn solutions enable predictive maintenance based on current process data in real time.

European Plastics Converters (EuPC) has announced the appointment of Federica Gallicchio as new Managing Director.

At K 2025, EREMA expands its portfolio to include high-performance twin-screw extruder technol-ogy. With the new TwinPro, the company combines the advantages of a twin-screw extruder with the proven strengths of its Preconditioning Unit (PCU) to be used for specific recycling applications.

Talks to develop a global treaty on plastics, proposed by the United Nations in 2022, could grind to a halt with nothing agreed, the BIR was warned at its Valencia Convention on 28 May.