Plastics Recyclers Europe (PRE, Brussels / Belgium; www.plasticsrecyclers.eu), the European PET Bottle Platform (EPBP; www.epbp.org) and US-based Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR, Washington, D.C.; www.plasticsrecycling.org) have formed the "Global Plastics Outreach Alliance" with the goal of coordinating efforts on testing protocols. The aim is to create a "Global Plastics Protocol" in order to harmonise design guides and testing procedures for recycled plastics, and serve as one coordinated industry voice.

Steve Alexander, president of APR, explained that over the years, all the associations had developed their own testing protocols. "As consumer brand companies expand their focus on sustainability, we identified differences between our protocols, which may require a company to conduct three separate tests to achieve the same recyclability designation. We hope to clarify these differences and align all segments of our testing protocols."

Representing EPBP, Andreas Christel said the last thing the plastics recycling industry needed was to make it more difficult for packaging engineers and designers to understand what protocol their innovation should address in order to ensure recyclability. "This effort will go a long way toward creating a truly global plastics recycling industry standard for certain resins," he said.

The alliance will provide updates at the PRE meeting on 23 November in Budapest / Hungary, and at the "Plastics Recycling" conference (www.plasticsrecycling.com) on 19-21 February 2018, in Nashville, Tennessee / USA.