Page 34 - Plastics News November 2020

UK organisations call for degradable plastics US PET industry group updates resin life cycle
ban analysis
S based The National Association for PET Container
ore than 40 businesses and organisations including
UResources (NAPCOR) says using recycled PET offers
MTesco, Waitrose, the National Farmers' Union and
a 60% greenhouse gas reduction over virgin material,
A Plastic Planet, have called for degradable plastics to
one of several recent findings the group added to its PET
be banned in the UK. They wrote an open letter environmental impact resources. NAPCOR this month
demanding that the UK Government follow the EU in announced the addition of the new information, which
banning degradable plastics to help the environment. comes from a comprehensive “cradle-to-resin life cycle
The EU will ban oxo-degradable plastics from next analysis” of PET completed by consulting firm Franklin
year. This comes after the British Standards Institution Associates. The findings appear to be roughly in line
with previous calculations in a 2018 Franklin Associates
(BSI) enacted specification PAS9017 earlier this month
analysis of recycled resins that was prepared for the
Association of Plastic Recyclers. The latest study
examined “energy and resource use, water
consumption, solid waste, and environmental impacts”
associated with various steps in the life cycle of PET.
These steps include raw material extraction for purified
terephthalic acid (PTA) and ethylene glycol (EG)
production, as
well as PET
r e s i n
manufacturing.
NAPCOR used
the findings of
which, the letter claims, “supports the sale of t h e s t u d y,
degradable plastics.” In the letter, signatories claim w h i c h w a s
that degradable materials do not solve the problem of fi n a l i z e d i n
plastic pollution, as they encourage littering under the March 2020,
combined with
misconception that the material will biodegrade. The
the previous
letter also states that microplastics enter the food
F r a n k l i n
chain through animals, fruit and vegetable, and impact
A s s o c i a t e s
human health, soil health, and biodiversity. It claims r e p o r t , t o
that degradable plastic is disruptive to recycling c o m p i l e
facilities, as they are unable to differentiate between N A P C O R ' s
conventional plastics and alternative plastic products. sustainability
The letter says: “These materials contain additives f a c t s f o r
recycled versus
that accelerate the conversion of macroplastics into
virgin PET.“A
microplastics after months or years of laying in the
reduction of 60% in greenhouse gas emissions may be
open. “The UK voted for the EU ban when it was
achieved by replacing a unit of [virgin] PET with RPET.
proposed in 2019. Failing to act now could turn Britain When using RPET in place of [virgin] PET, a 75% lower
from a leader into a laggard in fighting the plastic total energy demand may be achieved, and 40% less
crisis. “For these reasons, we call on the government process and transportation energy is expended.”
to protect our environment, protect our food
The industry group also recently published a progress
production, and protect British business by banning
report on PET thermoform recycling, noting an increase
these materials immediately.” PAS9017 is a standard in recovery over the past five years in particular.
intended to provide clarity over which materials are According to NAPCOR most reclaimers that purchase
biodegradable and which are not by measuring the curbside PET bales in the US and Canada will accept,
biodegradability of polyolefins, the most littered form and process for next use, some percentage of
of plastic packaging. thermoforms in their PET bottle bales.

NOVEMBER 2020 34 Plastics News