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 3rd Petcore Europe Thermoforming Conference in Dijon, France in May brought the PET tray market together to discuss how to move things forward at scale and pace. Some of the key issues to be addressed include:
- Improving collection and sorting rates for PET trays across EU Member States
- Advancing technologies to make trays more recyclable and improve recycling yields
- Where do trays fit in amongst European legislation?
- Creating a level playing field for all of Europe’s plastic recycling sectors
ICIS data show that in 2022, of the 1,070,000 tonnes of PET that went into trays in Europe, only 300,000 tonnes was collected for recycling – that’s just a 28% recovery rate. Collection data is a major challenge as only a handful of countries have readily available data on tray collection volumes, such as France, Belgium and Portugal. Until 2024, many countries in the EU considered PET trays as non-recyclable.
There are several early-stage tray recycling projects across Europe but due to limitations on collection and sorting, regular consistent supply of tray recyclate in Europe is still limited and must increase. The differences in collection and sorting systems across Europe together with variances in quality and yields makes accurate pricing of tray bales and recyclate challenging. Many market participants canvassed both ahead of and at the Petcore event stated the market has not yet reached a level of commercialisation where a consistent price assessment can be given.Tray packaging composition and end use applications also present challenges to collection and sorting.
Sorting technology needs to differentiate between monolayer and multilayer trays, sort colored and opaque trays from colorless material, and food-application from non-food application trays. Advancements in sorting techniques such as AI may help ease this process, but it still needs to be scaled. With the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) now in force, the tray industry is under pressure to improve collection and sorting rates to ensure they can meet the 2030 recycled content targets set out in the PPWR, including 30% for PET contact sensitive packaging.
Work continues to improve plastics recyclability in general, and for trays, one element is the work between the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) and the Commission that has been developing voluntary standards on design-for-recycling (DfR) for plastic packaging including PET, and this will help improve recyclability and sorting of PET trays. Clearer labelling of PET trays helps educate the consumer on how and where to recycle their rigid PET, with the aim of increasing collection rates.
One major challenge lies in delamination of multilayer and multimaterial trays. Under the guise of reducing plastic use, many brands are looking for ever-thinner applications and this leads to more demand for multilayer films which are used on a wide variety of food packaging. But multilayer films are harder to recycle, with the addition of polyethylene (PE) and ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH) leading to cloudiness and haze in the recyclate, and adhesives to fix the layers leading to gel spots and discoloration of the output.
Advances in delamination technology can help improve the recycling rates of multilayer trays, but this comes at a cost, and again, this technology still needs to be scaled to help reach the 2030 targets. Article 6 of the PPWR states all packaging placed on the market shall be recyclable, but this could be a big issue, especially multi-layer and multi-material trays.
The PPWR sets out three ‘Recyclability Performance Grades’ – A, B and C – which assess the recyclability per unit, in terms of weighting. Grade C, the lowest grade, requires that the unit (the PET tray in this case) is 70% recyclable. If not, from 2030, it cannot be placed on the market. Requirements get stricter from 2035 and 2038, where only trays that are 80% recyclable can be placed on the market.
Petcore’s Tray Circularity Evaluation Platform (TCEP) is working with the industry to help meet these guidelines but there is always the danger of a shift away from R-PET altogether to other packaging types without such strict requirements under PPWR.
News Courtesy : Recycling-magazine .