The “Plastics Recycling Show Europe 2021” (PRSE; www.prseventeurope.com) was held in Amsterdam on 4-5 November 2021, organised by industry association Plastics Recyclers Europe (PRE, Brussels / Belgium; www.plasticsrecyclers.eu) and Crain Communications. Winners of the recycling awards this year – given for progress in effective design for recycling – were announced at the event, and are as follows:

• Automotive, Electrical or Electronic: “Speed Home” WLAN by Deutsche Telekom
• Building & Construction: “Circular Green Rope” by Plastix (see Plasteurope.com of 22.03.2021)
• Household & Leisure: “HÅG Capisco Puls”, made of recycled snow plough markers by Flokk
• Plastic Packaging: Labeless bottle, by Saeme for Danone Eaux France
• Product Technology Innovation: Recyclable PP trigger sprayer by Reckitt
• Recycling Machinery Innovation (joint winners): Britas Recycling’s ABMF-PET-C and “Intarema”, “TVEplus”, “RegrindPro”, and “ReFresher” by Erema Engineering Recycling

The Plastics Recycling Ambassador for the year is Flor Peña Herron. A sustainability and circular economy manager at Avery Dennison, Herron holds a Masters degree in Sciences Biology with a major in Ecology and Microbiology, and is responsible for strengthening sustainability awareness via internal and external training at the firm. At the event, judges praised Herron for her commitment to work on improving plastic packaging recyclability and recycling in Europe. She also leverages multiple inaktives and platforms like Petcore Europe (Brussels; www.petcore-europe.org) and RecyClass (www.recyclass.eu), in an effort to make plastics truly circular.

The winners each receive a trophy, with a 3D-printed base made from 100% recycled ABS plastic car dashboards and a laser-cut top made from compressed HDPE beach clean-up bottle caps. PRSE 2022 is expected to take place on 22-23 June next year at the same venue.

Ton Emans, PRE president, said, “Now in their fourth year, the awards as a whole show how well all plastic value chain actors are collaborating to improve recycling: everyone from major brands and material producers through to converters, label producers and manufacturers of shredding and extrusion machinery.”