Spanish petrochemicals company Repsol (Madrid; www.repsol.com) has secured the new comprehensive “Circularity” award in the annual “Best Polymer Producers Awards for Europe” from the Polymers for Europe Alliance (www.polymercomplyeurope.eu/pce-services/polymers-europe-alliance).

The awards began in 2016 and are based on the results of a survey of European plastics converters. Plastics consumers who took the confidential survey were asked to evaluate polymer quality, circularity, delivery reliability, communication and innovation for the nine different polymer materials.

Poll respondents also named the Iberian company the best producer of HDPE, LDPE and PP.

The alliance provided a list of the individual winners:

• ABS – Elix Polymers (overall score of 81.5%)
• EVA – Versalis (62.4%)
• HDPE – Repsol (77.6%)
• PVC – Vynova (88.4%)
• LDPE – Repsol (93.3%)
• LLDPE – Dow (81.0%)
• PET – Indorama (78.9%)
• PP – Repsol (89.1%)
• PS & EPS – Ineos (72.7%)
• Circularity – Repsol (88.3%)

Ron Marsh, chairman of the alliance, said the average ratings for producers dropped 4% compared to the results in 2019 (see Plasteurope.com of 18.06.2019), a “development that we will continue to closely monitor.” He noted that his group plans to contact suppliers to discuss the lower ratings.

For the second time, the organisation is providing more detailed company rankings, including the scores of all polymer suppliers rated by the group’s members. More than 400 users of polymers across Europe participated in the online survey to rate their supplier’s performance from June 2019 up to May 2020, and the alliance extended this year’s voting to September due to the Covid-19 crisis (see Plasteurope.com of 10.06.2020).

Marsh thanked all those who responded to the survey, especially due to the difficult circumstances this year. “We are proud to say that the number of participants continued to rise for the fourth year in a row.”

This year's events ceremony was cancelled due to the pandemic.