Page 64 - Plastics News June 2026
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INTERNATIONAL NEWS
thus strengthening their competitiveness. These accelerated from 5% to 7.7%. Moreover, high en-
are reflected in the company’s ability to provide ergy and feedstock costs are eroding the com-
four-color automotive lamp injection moulding petitiveness of European manufacturers. Rising
machines, rPET-dedicated injection moulding emissions costs and intense global competition
machines, and wafer box-dedicated injection are making investment in new circular technolo-
moulding machines. Through industry–academ- gies increasingly difficult. The report spotlights
ia collaboration, CLF combines internal expertise Europe’s “dependence” on external value chains.
with academic research capabilities to develop It says that 19% of converter demand for circular
smart machinery. It continues exploring AI learn- plastics was met through imports, while 12.4% of
ing and adaptive control, collecting and learning Europe’s collected waste is recycled in other re-
from data to adjust parameters based on chang- gions. Europe is still exporting plastic waste be-
es in material characteristics—achieving optimal cause, today, it is often neither economically nor
moulding conditions. This not only reduces de- structurally viable to process it all within Europe.
fect rates, but also lowers energy consumption. This is not a waste problem alone; it is a com-
petitiveness and investment problem.
Europe’s Circular Plastics Transition “GROUND
TO A HALT Vietnam Reviews EPR rules Amid Recycling
Concerns
A recent report by Plastics Europe has revealed
that the transition to a circular plastic economy
decreased “dramatically” in 2024. It outlines
that, amid increasing global competition and
weak investment opportunities, 15.8% of Eu-
rope’s total plastics production was circular. The
report, titled The Circular Economy for Plastics:
A European Analysis, identifies that Europe’s an-
nual growth in circular production declined from
13.6% in 2022 to 1.2% in 2024, with circular out-
put dropping to 8.7 metric tons.
Craig Arnold, vice president at Plastics Europe,
said “Europe’s circular plastics transition is slow-
ing not because ambition is lacking, but because Vietnam is reassessing its Extended Producer
the economic conditions to scale circularity are Responsibility (EPR) framework as regulators
still missing. While there is a demand for circular look to close gaps between policy intent and
plastics, the European annual production growth real-world recycling outcomes.
has nearly ground to a halt. The gap between
political ambition and industrial reality is widen- The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environ-
ing.” By contrast, the report explains that annual ment has initiated a review of the country’s EPR
growth in global circular plastics production has decree, amid concerns that too many producers
66 PLASTICS NEWS June 2026
