By 2025, France's biggest films manufacturer Barbier (Sainte-Sigolène / France; www.barbiergroup.com) intends to double the quantity of recycled PE it uses, which currently stands at 25,000 t/y. Managing director Serge Vassal confirmed that the appropriate investments are being made in conjunction with the French government's initiatives on recycling and the use of plastic products – see Plasteurope.com of 17.08.2018. Among other things, the company has announced that it has earmarked EUR 3m for renovating the older of two recycling facilities.

Barbier processes around 155,000 t/y of plastics into films at five plants – primarily PE and, to a lesser extent, biodegradable materials. An average of 25% of this comprises either recyclate or bioplastics. Vassal intends to boost this figure to 45% by 2025. The amount of recyclate in individual products ranges from 0% to 100%, depending on the intended use of the film. The company's flagship product is its "Recyplast" series for industrial packaging, which was launched in 2015.

Barbier is focusing increasingly on films in biodegradable materials for specific applications, including bags for fruits and vegetables and protective packaging for magazines. According to Vassal, use of these plastics has increased fivefold over the past year alone – but presumably at a low level.

The films manufacturer has been recycling its own production waste since 1980. Responsibility for this rests with subsidiary Societé de Récyclage de Polyéthylènes (Sorep, Sainte-Sigolène / France). The company has a throughput of 15,000 t/y, from which it generates approximately 10,000 t of usable PE. In addition to the company's own production waste, it has so far also processed industrial films such as pallet sleeves, bubble wrap and films obtained via its own collection system. The plans to recycle household waste, including HDPE bottles, have evidently been partially implemented to date.

With Chavanon 5 (Monistrol-sur-Loire / France), a company which was brought into operation in 2016, Barbier has extended its recycling to agricultural films obtained from Agriculture Plastique Environnement (APE, Levallois Perret / France; www.plastiques-agricoles.com), an organisation operating a national collection scheme.

With agricultural films and films for rubbish bags, packaging of all kinds and labels, Barbier generated sales of EUR 278m in 2017. The group employs around 700 people and ranks fifth among films manufacturers in Europe.