Petcore Europe, PlasticsEurope, Plastics Recyclers Europe, and VinylPlus have all mutually agreed to form an organisation called PolyREC.
PolyREC will monitor, verify, and report plastics recycling uptake data in Europe by using a data collection system called RecoTrace.
A joint statement from the four trade associations says the new organisation will “ensure traceability, transparency, and trust in recycled materials along the entire plastics value chain”.
Between the four groups there are a string of companies with UK operations, with Plastics Recyclers Europe listing some of the big five UK waste companies such as Suez, Veolia and Viridor as their members.
Monitoring
According to the joint statement, the collaboration comes as monitoring polymers circularity becomes “paramount”.
Plastic Recyclers Europes president, Ton Emans, elaborated by saying that setting up mechanisms that “evidence progress” in driving plastic circularity in a transparent manner is “a must” if the industry wants meet targets.
“This is a significant step towards a credible and systemic approach to genuinely improve plastic production, collection, and recycling”
Mr Emans continued: “The announcement by the plastics value chain covering recyclers, raw material producers, and converters is a significant step towards a credible and systemic approach to genuinely improve plastic production, collection, and recycling. This mutual approach to data collection is indispensable to measure the industry’s advancement while using the same yardstick”.
VinylPlus’ managing director Brigitte Dero added: “Circularity of plastics is a key opportunity to enhance plastics products sustainability. The European PVC industry, through VinylPlus, has learnt the importance of monitoring and progress reporting. We are therefore pleased to share this long-time experience and work collaboratively with all plastic industry sectors to raise traceability and transparency in recycled plastics along the entire plastics value chain.”
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