Coming to PRSE just makes good sense

This year’s edition of the Plastics Recycling Show Europe promises to be bigger and busier than ever. PRSE 2024 will take place on 19-20 June, for the first time across four halls (Halls 9-12) at the RAI in Amsterdam.The show has shown phenomenal growth since its inauguration in 2017, offering very tangible proof of the changing perception over the years of the importance of plastics recycling.
The success of the PRSE is a reflection of the progress made by the plastics recycling industry in the past decade, in terms of both recycling rates and technologies. The two-day event draws together contributions from EU political leaders and every part of the plastics industry, from major brands to material suppliers, plastics recycling machinery and equipment suppliers, plastics recyclers and waste management specialists. With each show, the number of exhibitors has grown, as has the size of the stands. If in 2017 barely one hall could be filled, the 2024 edition – the eighth - will occupy four halls, with many of the exhibitors of previous years returning of take part in what is widely regarded as the most important recycling event on the calendar, along with annual crop of new participants in the show.

Newcomer
This year, one of those first-time exhibitors is Evonik. Patrick Glöckner, who leads the Circular Economy Program at Evonik explained why the company had decided to take part. “I try to keep track of the events that are organised each year and this show is one of the most exciting ones in terms of relevant topics for the entire industry,” he said.

Circularity, including recycling, is an important topic for Evonik and its Circular Economy Program and is ‘a big growth lever’ said Glöckner. “It was launched in 2020 and now encompasses the full spectrum of activities, including design for circularity, and end-of-life solutions. A year ago, we also decided to broaden the scope, to include biodegradable solutions and even products not based on plastics, such as lithium-ion batteries. Our goal is to add € 1 bn in new sales to the business by 2030.”

Until recently, Evonik’s markets did not extend to recycling and recyclates. With the transition towards a more circular economy, that has changed. Recycling is one way to manage the end of life of products in a circular economy, said Glöckner, but it starts with products designed for circularity. These are products are based on circular raw materials such as biobased, recycled or CO2-based feedstocks or they are designed as ‘simple’ as possible, in order to enable efficient recycling.  “Durability is another important aspect. Durable products have an extended useful life, so maintenance becomes important. This is an area where our products can become important.”

In recycling, however, the role of Evonik is focused on improving the quality of the recyclates and increasing the yields and efficiency of the recycling processes, whether these are chemical or mechanical processes. Although mechanical recycling is usually the first choice, it has become increasingly obvious that both processes are essential if the EU’s recycling targets are ever to be met.

“We are therefore striving to ensure chemical recycling is accepted under European law,” Glöckner emphasised. “Apart from that, our role is always the same. We have catalysts, we have our specialties, we have additives designed to improve recycling processes with regards to efficiency, yields and quality - independent of the recycling technology - but we don’t do the recycling ourselves.”

Regarding chemical recycling, Evonik is looking at solutions for the various technologies available according to its ‘priorities list’, Glöckner said. “My specific role is to identify these technologies, identify the needs and to match the needs with the competencies we have in our company. I have to be alert before any new plant will become commercial – when the FIDs are decided, because its then that we have to start thinking about selling our products.

Various projects are already ongoing. For example, Evonik has worked on a solvolysis project based on alkoxides for PET plastic, in which the plastic is broken down into the two monomers ethylene glycol and dimethyl terephthalate, both of which can be reused in polymerisation of virgin like PET. The company has also developed a hydrolysis process which uses water to break down the chemical bonds in polyurethane, allowing the polyols to be recovered. Evonik is collaborating with recycler Remondis on a mattress recycling project to secure its supply of end-of-life mattress foam which would have been incinerated otherwise. Reusing these recovered polyols can significantly reduce the CO2 footprint associated with mattress production.
Lastly, the company has also created adsorbents and catalysts which enabling the output from pyrolysis processes – the pyrolysis oils - to be upgraded by removing impurities and contaminants like chlorides to be removed – referred to by Glöckner as ‘nasty pain points for the steam cracker’ -   during production,  as well as additives that stabilise the finished pyrolysis oil and minimise crystallisation keeping it flowable so that it is ready for the cracker. These additives make processing in crackers safer and more robust. “Pyrolysis technology is a great option to convert as much as carbon as possible into a new product. After all, the alternative today is energy recovery and this is something we do not consider as recycling,” said Glöckner

Mechanical recycling, on the other hand, has been established for decades. “What we now need to do is to boost this to a higher level,” he explained. “To do this, we can supply additives from our existing portfolio as well as work on the development of new products, to fill the gaps and provide comprehensive solutions. My task is also to connect the different parts of our business with these potential new customers in the recycling industry.” There is some industry resistance to acknowledging the need for improvement, he admitted. However, it is not a choice: “When you look at the revised Plastic Packaging Waste Regulation, it is clear that the demand for high-quality recyclates will be significantly higher than the supply. And to achieve that high-quality mechanically recyclates, more process innovation is necessary, for example, to remove all labels and printing inks and to reduce odor. Our additives can help achieve the required quality. But what is essential that everyone understands why the processes need to be changed for this improvement to happen.

A further important role for the Circular Economy Program is to setup partnerships along value chains –’, Glöckner noted. “If you have the right partners, you can produce high-quality recyclate from difficult-to recycle material using mechanical recycling. We have a partnership with BMW, a recycler and a compounder, for example, that involves the use of our products to enable bumper-to-bumper recycling. The beauty is the trust and openness in the team to overcome hurdles and technological challenges.”

Back again – Cirplus
A repeat exhibitor at the Amsterdam event is Hamburg-based Cirplus GmbH, Europe's largest digital procurement platform for recycled plastics. “We come to PRSE – and this year we’ll also be exhibiting at PRS India, in Mumbai – to feel the pulse of the industry. Of course, we are also here to showcase how Cirplus has evolved, and ideally, to find new customers who might be inspired by the recent regulatory changes in Europe to look for someone that can help them procure recycled plastics at scale,” Cirplus’ CEO, Christian Schiller, told Sustainable Plastics.

And how has Cirplus evolved? It has not been all clear sailing over the past year. In fact, last year was not at all good financially  – “but unlike many of our peers, we are still alive,” said Schiller. The conditions in the market also affected the way the platform works. Originally, its founder envisioned it as a marketplace, similar to EBay or Amazon but that approach has been abandoned.

“We’ve ‘pivoted’, as we say today, away from just matching buyers and sellers to a more active role where we orchestrate the demand side and we aggregate and qualify the supply side; in other words, becoming much more hands on in understanding what the buyer really wants. We also actively try to get procurement specifications from buyers, then look in our supplier database to sample and qualify only suppliers meeting the procurement specification. And we only put buyers who truly wish to buy in front of the sellers. In short, the way the platform works today is very different from what I expected,” explained Schiller. “We discovered that the plastics industry needs different approaches than what we've seen in the consumer space – mainly because the nature of the transaction is so complex.”

The overall vision has not changed, he stressed. The ultimate aim is still to become a one-stop shop for recycled plastics, and as a digital platform, to make the procurement process as simple and seamless as possible for buyers.

“We want them to feel that they're talking to a single company and not to 20, or 30 or even 50 suppliers out there. And we want the first thing anyone looking for recycled polymers thinks of to be: let's go and check out surplus,” Schiller said.

For the plastics recycling industry, conditions have improved since last year’s dismal performance – the result of the coalescence of such factors as high energy prices, cheaply priced virgin resins from China and low demand. “Despite public pledges, brands just moved away from using recyclates,” said Schiller. “As long as they are not required to, and the prices of alternatives remain low, customers will choose not to use recyclate.”

And while legislation setting mandatory recycled content targets will firm up the obligation to use recycled materials, Schiller cautioned against too much optimism. “People will always look for, and find loopholes.” Safeguards will also have to be built in to prevent the market from being flooded with cheap Asian recyclates of uncertain provenance.

Schiller firmly believes that digitalisation can be a solution here. “I think that the necessary condition for making plastics really, if not fully, then highly circular, is a thorough digitalisation of the life cycle, coupled with AI. Processing plastic waste is a complex proposition, because of the lack of true insight into crucial factors such as age, provenance, exposure, or the additives used. “Maybe one of the biggest insights from five years working in this space is that today we are still largely blind on plastic recycling,” he argued.

“Without digitisation and AI, there's not going to be a truly circular plastics economy deserving of being called that. In other words, it's the necessary precondition for all the other technologies debates. To my mind, the discussions around mechanical versus chemical in my mind are all moot, if we don't manage to track and trace the material from production, to conversion, to the use phase, to the end of life, and then deciding at the end of life - using AI - how to ideally recycle this kind of plastics,” he said.

“I think once you really spell it out, step by step in the value chain, everybody will agree that it is super complex, and that digitisation and AI will have a key role to play. I don’t think there’s a procurement manager in the world who can manage that level of complexity. And be confident about his choices or her choices.”

First, however, the groundwork needs to be laid, by creating software anyone can use, from the waste pickers in India to a plant manager in Bolivia. Only after this digitalisation work has been done can the data be generated that is needed to teach an AI model how to respond in the market.

“And if there's one thing that the plastic recycling market is suffering from it is lack of data and transparency. And getting the data needed will be a challenge, as this will also depend on trust.”

One way to build trust is through standards, which is why Cirplus has been the initiator of several recycled plastics standards: DIN SPEC 91446 and DIN SPEC 91481, aimed at simplifying procurement and quality assurance, thus bringing transparency about the materials being traded and avoiding misunderstandings; and EN 18065, the European standard based on DIN 91446. If the platform is to become the one stop shop for recycled polymers worldwide it is striving to become, trading in recyclates in a quality and quantity that can serve global supply chains, it needs to build trust. So trust has been at the core trust building has been at the core of why we engaged in standard building, Schiller said.

“Standardising data in standards means we can start speaking the same language when we talk plastic recycling - across the world. Simple things, like using the same parameters, mechanical and chemical property requirements -  necessary information when you are in the business of plastic recycling for which tests are needed,” he pointed out. Getting the data will therefore be challenging – and cost money. Legislation demanding the use of recycled content is a key driver in this case:  only then will brands fully commit to paying a premium for the material.

“However, it is essential, if the recycling industry is ever to reach a level of professionalisation allowing it to serve the Procter & Gamble's of this world for real,” he stated.

The other component in building trust is transparency. That too, is a challenge in an industry that is reluctant to share information and, in some cases, even profits from being untransparent.

“So this is the second key insight that I think is important to mention. We must find a way a safe way to pass data along the value chain, so that it can only be accessed at later stages in the value chain, at least to the extent that it is important for the circularity of plastics. Because recyclers need to know what is in the plastics they recycle. Only then can they do a better job of producing quality recyclate.”