Plastics Recyclers Europe and Styrenics Circular Solutions have joined forces in a reciprocal membership arrangement that is aimed at accelerating the development of styrenics recycling.
The collaboration is to the benefit of both organisations: the SCS has a smaller network but includes members from across the value chain, while PRE has a larger membership base that will considerably expand the network of the SCS.
Jens Kathman, Secretary-General of SCS described it as a crucial new membership for SCS. Joining together with PRE will further ‘accelerate the momentum that SCS has been building to create a strong market pull away from incineration and landfill towards significantly increased plastic-to-plastic recycling of polystyrene’.
“Building on the excellent sortability and unique circularity of polystyrene, our joint efforts will extend the closed loop food contact recycling beyond bottles to new applications,” he said.
PRE managing director Antonino Furfari called the collaboration ‘another important step of joining forces of the industry towards making all plastics fully circular’.
Brussels-based PRE is an organisation that represents the plastics recyclers in Europe. It has over 140 members, who are active in the reprocessing of plastic waste into high-quality material destined for the production of new articles. PRE acts on behalf of its members to provide a voice for the sector at the highest levels. Recyclers are important facilitators of the circularity of plastics and the transition towards a more circular economy.
SCS is a joint industry initiative that was originally hosted by PlasticsEurope. It became a separate legal entity in 2018 to facilitate the inclusion of all value chain partners. SCS acts as a platform to engage in the development and industrialisation of new recycling technologies and solutions by facilitating recycling projects across the styrenics value chain. With its 11 members, SCS aims to strengthen the sustainability of styrenic products while improving resource efficiency within the circular economy.