The plastics manufacturers’ association PlasticsEurope (Brussels / Belgium; www.plasticseurope.org) has launched a pan-European initiative for recycling polystyrene. In support of the EU's circular economy plan, the organisation wants to engage the entire value chain in the development and use of "promising new recycling technologies." The aim is to incorporate PS recyclates from post-consumer material in manufacturer's processes, with the hope to move the recycled material to the same qualitative level as virgin PS and also that it is suitable for food contact applications at a later stage.

One possible link here is petrochemical company Total's (Paris / France; www.total.com) report on its industrial-scale test run for producing PS with recycled content (see Plasteurope.com of 06.07.2017). The company demonstrated that around 20% of post-consumer PS waste could be incorporated with virgin PS.

PlasticsEurope also founded the Chemical Recycling Working Group recently, headed by Norbert Niessner, development director at Ineos Styrolution. After the working group's first meeting, Niessner said the initiative is to "provide efficient and sustainable solutions to today’s environmental challenges."

The established details of the initiative are rather straightforward. However, a spokesman confirmed to Plasteurope.com that the new chemical recycling technologies have not been used before. For the moment, all responsibilities and functions are yet to be defined for the start-up phase, and it is not clear in which time frame the implementation is to take place.