Plastics Recyclers Europe (PRE), a trade association for the European plastics industry, is warning that increasing use of coloured PET packaging could lead to ‘a collapse in the PET and HDPE recycling industry’.

According to the group, producers of milk packaging, as well as those manufacturing home and personal care packaging, are increasingly planning to switch from using high-density polyethylene (HDPE) in their products to polyethylene terephthalate (PET), due to ‘cost, marketing and sustainability reasons’.

However, PRE warns that as the majority of these products are ‘typically packaged in colourful containers due to marketing reasons’, this shift could lead to more than 300,000 additional tonnes of coloured PET, including black and white colours, entering the market. PRE has argued that as the coloured rPET fraction would likely have to be tinted to a uniform colour such as grey or black, and no market of any size exists for such an output, the coloured PET would in effect be a ‘waste’ stream, and yield from recycling plants will ‘drastically decrease’.

Other concerns centre around:

• the extra sorting capacity needed to be installed at PET recycling facilities to sort the PET materials into different colours;
• the extra work needed to colour the sorted fraction (which has a ‘greyish’ tint) with dark grey or black dyes and finding a relevant end market for this material;
• an increase of titanium dioxide (used in a pigment that makes plastic bottles appear brighter and opaque), which could create a ‘haze’ effect on clear packaging and present ‘serious issues for food contact and fibre applications’.

The association commented: ‘These “colourful” future trends will weaken the image of PET as a recycled product. Additionally, it will create great difficulties for the PET recycling industry, which already has other market barriers [such as transaction costs and “information failures”] to overcome. Furthermore, the existing HDPE recycling industry, which already has a market for coloured HDPE applications (e.g. the pipe industry) will suffer if coloured PET continues to grow.

‘The actors willing to pursue this dangerous path should be ready to bear the increase in extended producer responsibility costs and accept a collapse in the PET & HDPE recycling industry.’

PRE suggests that to mitigate the ‘collapse’ of the industry, packaging producers could instead use ‘full body’ sleeves (which ‘must be detectable by NIR sorting systems and cannot interact negatively in the recycling process’) to colour their packaging – rather than switch to coloured PET.

It concluded: ‘PRE calls on the PET and HDPE value chains to join efforts to avoid breaking the circular functioning of these recycling streams.’

Plastics industry facing increasing challenges

The recycled plastics industry has already faced ‘unprecedented challenges’ this year, as a result of falling oil prices.

Earlier this year, the price of oil dropped to under US$60 (£40) a barrel for the first time in five years, thus making the price of virgin plastic fall and leading some businesses to switch back from recycled polymers to virgin plastic. As a result of this, and ‘operational challenges and unfavourable market conditions’, two plastic reprocessors, ECO Plastics (now known as ECOPlastics Recycling) and Closed Loop Recycling (now known as Euro Closed Loop Recycling Ltd), sought acquisition.

Find out more about Plastics Recyclers Europe.