Page 36 - Plastics News March 2017

INTERNATIoNAL NEWS

Africa Finance Corporation to European Parliament setting big

invest US$25 mln in Carbon recycling targets

Holdings Ltd. he European Parliament has voted for legislation

Tfor the European Union to aim for a recycling rate
frica Finance Corporation (AFC), a leading pan- target of 70 percent by 2030, with packaging materials,
AAfrican multilateral development finance institution — including paper, cardboard, plastics, glass, metal and
and project developer, has announced plans to invest wood — with a proposed an 80 percent target for 2030,
US$25 mln in Egyptian petrochemicals company Carbon with interim 2025 targets for each material. Members
Holdings Ltd. Carbon Holdings primarily operates in of Parliament (MEPs) also supported “waste package”
the Suez Special Economic Zone. As well as exporting plans for the EU
raw materials and end products, the company aims
to limit the share
of landfilling to
5 percent and
to deliver a 50
percent reduction
in food waste by
2030. The draft
legislation, if
enacted, would set a limit of 10 percent for the share
of municipal waste to be landfilled by 2030. MEPs
proposed reducing this to 5 percent — with a possible
five-year extension, under certain conditions — for EU
member states which landfilled more than 65 percent
of their municipal waste in 2013. MEPs also advocated
an EU food waste reduction target of 30 percent by
2025 and 50 percent by 2030, compared to 2014. They
also proposed a similar target for marine litter. “Today,
Parliament by a very large majority has showed that it
to develop an integrated large scale petrochemicals believes in the transition towards a circular economy,”
platform in Egypt to take advantage of the country's said Italian MEP Simona Bonafè. “We decided to restore
strategic geographic location along the Suez Canal. the ambitious recycling and landfill targets in line
Subsidiary companies of Carbon Holdings include oriental with what the Commission had originally proposed
Petrochemicals Company, Egypt Hydrocarbon Corporation in 2014.” Karl-H. Foerster, executive director of
and Tahrir Petrochemicals Corporation. In addition to industry organization PlasticsEurope, responded to the
AFC, the International Finance Corporation and Gulf Parliamentary proposals, saying: “The European plastics
Capital are providing capital to support the expansion of industry has been calling for a legally binding landfill
Carbon Holdings' operations. The Company's investment restriction on all recyclable as well as other recoverable
strategy will support the establishment of a robust post-consumer waste by 2025. As an industry, we see it
raw materials base and ultimately the development of as a priority for Europe as such waste should be treated
Egypt's manufacturing sector, delivering long term jobs to as a resource.”
Egypt and helping to boost Africa's overall economic
growth.AFC was formed to provide specific project But PlasticsEurope said the interim plastic packaging
structuring expertise and risk capital for large-scale recycling target of 60 percent that the Parliament has
infrastructure projects that are needed across Africa to adopted for 2025 is an ambitious objective, as is a
develop economies. stricter calculation methodology being proposed.

Plastics News | March 2017 36