Thirty-five companies along the value chain have founded the RecyPac – Kreislauf Plastik und Getränkekarton association (www.recypac.ch) aimed at establishing a nationwide collection and recycling system for plastics packaging and beverage cartons in Switzerland.

The organisation, headed by president Wolfgang Wörnhard, is setting out to coordinate the collection and recycling of packaging of this type in the future – with the exception of PET bottles for which dedicated recycling systems are already in place.

A chargeable collection bag is to be introduced throughout the country and a uniform price system will be developed based on the three pillars of bag contributions, contributions from distributors, and recycling revenues. This is intended to cover all the costs from collection through to sorting and recycling. In addition, recycling quotas have been defined up until 2030, amounting to 55% for plastics packaging and 70% for beverage cartons. 

This “voluntary industry solution” (to quote RecyPac) is aimed at achieving closed material loops and boosting recycled volumes in Switzerland. According to the Swiss Plastic Recyclers Association (Olten; www.plasticrecycler.ch), the amount of plastics waste collected from Swiss households in 2022 was 9,447 t, or 10% more than in 2021.