The quality of recycled plastics materials (rPM) remains the biggest barrier to a stronger use of recyclates as raw materials, according to a recent survey conducted by the European Plastics Converters Association (EuPC).
The pan-European survey, which took five months to complete, and was taken by 485 participants from 28 countries, revealed that almost 60% of the European plastics converting companies find it hard or very had to find a supply of rPM in “an acceptable quality”.
Additionally, the survey found that customers of converting companies do not support the use of rPM “well enough”.
Only 27% of the European plastics converting companies stated that their customers were sufficiently aware of the benefits and needs to use rPM.
On the regulatory front, a majority of respondents believed that the current regulatory framework needed to be adapted to adequately support the use of rPM.
Almost 60% of the companies thought that the current regulations are not suitable to support a stronger use of rPM in the future, the survey found.
The survey is part of a larger initiative of EuPC to acquire more knowledge about the use of rPM in the plastics converting industry.
Further surveys and workshops with national plastics associations are expected to follow in 2018 and beyond, the EuPC said.