Page 40 - Plastics News December 2025
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BUSINESS NEWS
rial with virgin polymers,” he said. veloping countries are also now bringing in such
measures.
“To give you an idea of the difference, today,
you can find, in Europe or in the US, or in any Patcharin Thamasirianunt, sales specialist at
developed market, virgin PET at US$ 800 per Union J Limited (THA) revealed that Thailand
tonne. Recycled PET is twice this price, so it’s mostly exports PP, HDPE and LDPE, with its top
very hard to compete. And unless you have a three export destinations being China, India, and
strong mandate from the government, like we Indonesia. The country is planning to introduce
have in Europe with the Single Use Plastic direc- measures including extended producer respon-
tive or other mandates in the US, brands typical- sibility and design for recycling.
ly go away from their commitments and prefer
to use a cheap material.” Recent investment in Union J has led to new
machinery and plant, along with ambitions to
Mr Craipeau said that imports into Europe from produce premium and food grade polyolefins. It
Indonesia and Malaysia had been blamed for re- uses recycled feedstock to produce PP, HDPE,
cycling shutdowns, but “if you look at the sta- LDPE and LLDPE, supplying 60% of its output to
tistics, it is not accurate”. By his calculations, In- local markets and the remainder to customers
donesia and Malayasia exported into Europe an in Asia.
average of 60,000 tonnes, out of the two mil-
lion tonnes of PET recycling capacity. “When I Wrapping up the presentations was an update
talk to PET recyclers in Europe, they all tell me… on the UN Global Plastics treaty negotiations
we don’t have enough, we need to import. What from Bianca Mannini, Trade and Environment
they import from those two countries – which Policy Officer at BIR. She reported that, after
are often seen as the culprits – is 2% of the ca- the last meeting in Geneva in August, “negotia-
pacity. So…the culprit is not imported material.” tions ended once again without consensus on a
treaty text, but there was a renewed sense of
Asked how lost recycling capacity could be urgency”.
brought back, Olivier Francois, President of Re-
cycling Europe said it would be a “very difficult” There was a divide between those who want a
to reverse the situation and it would need to full life-cycle approach to plastic pollution and
be driven by an increase in demand, most likely a legally binding treaty, and those who want to
from new regulations. For investment to return, limit the scope of the treaty to waste manage-
there needed to be both an obligation to recycle ment and use voluntary commitments.
and demand for what is recycled. Ms Mannini said that key decisions about the
Mr Craipeau added that ensuring compliance next round of negotiations will be taken at a
with legislation was equally important, “because meeting in Nairobi, Kenya in December and that
these days, that’s a problem, there is no en- “there is hope, there is an expectation for a
forcement”. He flagged that India is introducing strong treaty”.
minimum recycled content legislation and, al- Source - https://www.recycling-magazine.com
though it has been delayed, it shows that de-
40 PLASTICS NEWS December 2025
