Petcore Europe has launched its new Plastic Aerosol Recycling Special Industry Group (SiG).
The group has been launched to anticipate the need to recycle higher amounts of plastic aerosols and increase the recycling volumes of PET products from the household packaging waste stream.
By 2020, the Aerosol Dispenser Directive (ADD) will potentially allow plastic aerosols beyond 220 ml in Europe.
"Currently, the capacity is restricted due to the fact that the ADD was written in a time when only brittle plastics were available. This led to the approach to treat plastics the same way as coated glass containers," explained Johannes Burghaus Chairman.
"With PET we have today an ideal plastic aerosol material at hand. That is why FEA, the European Aerosol Federation, started an approach to change the ADD and allow plastic aerosols beyond 220 ml capacity."
As this will enable mass market, the market volume of plastic aerosols is expected to increase, leading to a higher amount of plastic aerosol packages in the collection, sorting and recycling systems in Europe. For this reason, FEA and Petcore Europe have established the Plastic Aerosol Recycling Special Industry Group (SiG) under the umbrella of Petcore Europe.
Alain D'haese, FEA Secretary General, added: "FEA members will benefit from an effective and efficient recycling of plastic aerosols, supported by consumers. Moving towards a circular approach can only be achieved through joint action by all stakeholders from the value chain. FEA will support Petcore delivering tangible results."
"In line with the new European Plastic Waste Strategy, we need to enable a smooth entry of new plastic aerosol packages to the PET recycling stream," explains Christian Crepet, Petcore Europe Executive Director.
"Design guidelines as well as suitable collection, sorting and recycling processes are needed in order to recycle plastic aerosol packages properly. Via this full value chain collaboration it is intended to make plastic aerosol packages fully recyclable in standard PET containers."
