MBA Polymers UK General Manager and President of EuRIC’s Plastic Recycling Branch (EPRB) highlights the importance plastic recycling could make towards becoming a circular economy
MBA’s vision is to create a sustainable planet by eliminating plastic waste and preventing the depletion of the world’s natural resources. Through a series of processing stages, we have the ability to produce a recycled polymer to the same specification as the original part, closing the recycling loop by reprocessing many tonnes of post-production waste each week, which would have otherwise been sent to landfill.
EuRIC shares this same vision and acknowledges the key benefits plastic recycling plays in the respect of turning waste into high-quality recyclates. By doing so, it contributes to save virgin resources, greenhouse gas emissions and energy.
EuRIC – The European Recycling Industries’ Confederation and the umbrella organisation for recycling industries, has produced a brochure which highlights the importance of moving towards a circular economy for plastics in Europe. It identifies the most commonly used types of plastics and describes the current state-of-play, challenges faced by the European mechanical plastics recycling industry alongside with key recommendations to overcome them. Plastic recycling’s environmental benefits and economic importance is also touched upon.
EuRIC’s recent call for recycled content of plastics in new cars to be increased has been followed up with this factsheet, with further publications to follow which will stress the vital role the recycling industry will play in the transition towards a circular economy. These measures have become even more urgent today with the plastic recycling industry being heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic; demand is plummeting alongside overly low virgin plastics prices with whom recycled polymers compete.
Paul Mayhew, General Manager at MBA Polymers UK and President of EuRIC’s Plastic Recycling Branch (EPRB) emphasised the major contribution that plastics recycling can make towards a circular economy for improving Europe’s competitiveness and resource efficiency. He said:
“Moving towards a more sustainable economy for plastics will deliver considerable benefits. What is missing in order to speed up that transition are measures to stimulate the demand for recycled plastics in products through recycled content targets and incentives rewarding their environmental benefits when compared with virgin plastics and a more consistent legislative framework. It is essential to further restrict landfill and incineration of but also better control unprocessed plastic waste exports outside Europe to countries with lower recycling standards.”
For more information on MBA, visit www.mbapolymers.co.uk
