Winners of the Plastics Recycling Awards Europe 2021 announced

Traditionally, the highpoint of day 2 of the PRSE is the announcement of the winners of the annual Plastics Recycling Awards Europe, and this year was no exception.

And, each year, it is exciting to see the progress made in effective design for recycling, resulting in an increasingly broader range of recyclable plastic products and the truly circular use of plastics.

"These awards are a true celebration of the achievements of companies and individuals," said Brennan Lafferty, Group Publisher and Vice President of the Crain Global Polymer Group, who presented the awards jointly with Antonino Furfari, Managing Director of PRE and Brennan Lafferty, at a ceremony held in the conference theatre at the PRSE show.

Prior to announcing this year's winners, however, first, the winners of the 2020 awards were called to the stage, as COVID-19 unfortunately had made it impossible to officially recognise their achievements other than virtually. This year, they finally received their deserved applause.

The following winners of the Plastics Recycling Awards Europe 2021 were announced:

• Automotive, Electrical or Electronic Product: Speed Home WLAN by Deutsche Telekom AG
• Building & Construction Product: Circular Green Rope by Plastix A/S
• Household & Leisure Product: HÅG Capisco Puls - auburn coloured made of recycled snow plough markers by Flokk
• Plastic Packaging Product: Labeless bottle, designed to be circular - 100% recyclable - 100% recycled plastic by SAEME for Danone Eaux France
• Product Technology Innovation: Recyclable PP trigger sprayer by Reckitt
• Plastics Recycling Ambassador: Flor Peña Herron, Avery Dennison
• Recycling Machinery Innovation (Joint winners):
• BritAS Recycling-Anlagen GmbH’s ABMF-PET-C & INTAREMA® TVEplus® RegrindPro® + ReFresher by EREMA Engineering Recycling Maschinen und Anlagen Ges.m.b.H.

The Automotive, Electrical or Electronic Product award winner, the Speed Home WLAN by Deutsche Telekom AG is made with almost 100% recycled content that comes from the WEEE (Waste Electrical & Environmental Equipment) stream. The judges praised this appliance for being an excellent example of the circular use of plastics into the same class of everyday objects, while maintaining the visual appeal of the exterior design.

Plastix’s Circular Green Rope, the Building & Construction Product winner, shows that it is possible to successfully recycle fishing gear, an application that has proved challenging up until now. This genuinely innovative and holistic cross-industry solution is both a key enabler of the transition to the Circular New Plastics Economy and a real business opportunity.

The auburn-coloured HÅG Capisco Puls from Flokk made from recycled snow plough markers is this year’s Household and Leisure Product award winner. The jury praised Flokk for its relentless commitment towards sustainable and durable furniture. The new chair features a seat and back shell made of 100% recycled post-consumer polypropylene, showing how plastic waste can be recycled into a desirable design without compromising its quality or functionality. The desk chair also scored very highly for aesthetics, ergonomics and design. It allows different sitting positions, for example to engage the legs, which are not possible with conventionally designed chairs.

Recyclability of packaging is the first step to ensure it will be recycled back into a high quality, closed-loop application. The Evian labeless bottle designed to be circular by SAEME for Danone Eaux France is truly innovative packaging and winner of the Plastic Packaging Product category. Removing the label from the bottle minimises packaging use and helps the recycling process. The packaging scores A+++ in the RecyClass analysis. 

The Product Technology Innovation award goes to Reckitt for its mono-material PP Trigger Sprayer, a significant advance in design to improve the recyclability of this popular product. Trigger sprays often contain multiple materials that can include metal or glass, making them difficult to recycle. The judges commended Reckitt for reducing the weight of this component and by committing to moving from 22 variants of trigger sprayers to 3 and reducing the number of colour variations from 42 to 6. This excellent example of design for recycling sends an important signal for other companies to follow. 

The Plastics Recycling Ambassador 2021 is Flor Peña Herron, Sustainability & Circular Economy Manager EMENA at Avery Dennison Label and Packaging Materials. The judges praised Flor for setting the course for converters, label producers, the packaging industry and the whole value chain in her commitment to work on improving plastic packaging recyclability and recycling in Europe. She leverages multiple platforms including Petcore and RecyClass, and her passion and motivation are delivering real change in making plastics circular.
"It's an honour I didn't see coming," she said, accepting the award. "I believe that together we can make a difference. Individually we can all contribute, but we must also work together - and keep fighting for our planet. Thank you so much!"

Two entries in the Recycling Machinery Innovation category scored equal highest points from the jury, clearly ahead of all other finalists, and the judges therefore decided to make the award to both jointly.

Launched to the market in October of this year, Britas’s ABMF-PET-C (Automatic Belt Melt Filter) provides  fully automated filtration of contaminants from plastic waste. For the first time it allows the continuous processing of post-consumer waste without stopping production, making it ideal for continuous processing and consistent pellet quality.

The INTAREMA TVEplus RegrindPro + ReFresher by Erema applies the company’s existing and very successful ReFresher technology for recycling food contact HDPE containers. The judges recognised this innovation as a step-change in eliminating unwanted odour from waste plastics, allowing recyclate to replace virgin plastics in high-end applications. This type of innovation is essential for meeting EU targets for recycled content of food contact plastics.

The winners were each presented with a trophy featuring a 3D printed base made from 100% recycled ABS plastic car dashboards and a multi-colour top which is laser cut from compressed HDPE beach clean-up bottle caps.

“Congratulations to all eight of our outstanding winners. These incredible projects and products prove our sector’s commitment to the recycling and reuse of plastics by design,” said Brennan Lafferty. “They show us all that by working together we can make great things from recycled plastics and substantially increase the uptake of recyclates.”

"You have pushed the plastics recycling industry to new heights," added Antonino Furfari. "We are looking forward with anticipation to your entries and your new innovations next year. Thank you!"

The judging panel this year included three previous winners of the Ambassador Award: Professor Kim Ragaert of Maastricht University (2020), Gian de Belder, Technical Director, R&D Packaging Sustainability at Procter & Gamble (2019) and Willemijn Peeters CEO of Searious Business (2018). They were joined by Ton Emans, President of Plastics Recyclers Europe (PRE); Karen Laird, Editor of Sustainable Plastics and Rune Thoralfsson, Owner and Director of plastic film recycler Norfolier GreenTec AS.

The Plastics Recycling Awards Europe are organised jointly by Plastics Recyclers Europe and Crain Communications, organisers of PRSE. EREMA Engineering Recycling Maschinen GmbH, Fimic SRL and Tomra Sorting Recycling are platinum sponsors of the 2021 Awards.