Circular Economy in South Africa CE workshop on plastics CE mission South Africa Freek van Eijk, Managing Director Acceleratio Capetown, May, 2018
Plastics are everywhere
Plastics are in everything
Public sentiment towards Plastics It start with a doubts: plastic is oil based. Fossil fuel has ending reserves, is bad and causes GHG emissions
Public sentiment towards Plastics Remember: plastics are everywhere and in everything. Serious concerns: plastic waste and litter
Serious concerns: Marine Litter / Plastic Soup The Declaration of the Global Plastics Associations for Solutions on Marine Litter
Serious concerns: Marine Litter / Plastic Soup
F&F Plastic Oceans Bags Packaging:> 40% of total plastic USA > 1 M bags are used every minute Average bag working life : 15 min. A Plastic Ocean premiere - on January 19 Pathé Tuschinski Amsterdam! Beverage Bottles In 2014 (USA): 315 bottles a person 57% of bottles: plastic water bottles Producing bottled water requires 6x water/bottle as there is inside 14% of litter: beverage containers http://www.plasticoceans.org
Serious concerns: Substances of (Very High) Concern
We can do more than valorisation of materials! But it is a collaborative life cycle effort TRADITIONAL 3-Rs REDUCE RE-USE RECYCLE MAKE AND USE PRODUCTS SMARTER REFUSE RETHINK REDUCE PRODUCT AND PARTS LIFE EXTENSION RE-USE REPAIR REFURBISH REMANUFACTURE REPURPOSE VALORISATION OF MATERIALS RECYCLE RECOVER
[REFUSE] Phase out Substances of (very high) Concern
[Rethink] Use a renewable route Decouple plastics from fossile feedstock bioplastics vs biobased plastics vs biodegradable plastics vs compostable plastics
[REDUCE] Bio-based plastics Better environmental impact 2014: 0,6% of volume of plastics Main flows Bio-PET (a.o. Plant Bottle, Bio-PE (a.o. Braskem) New materials: PLA Biodegradable polyester Bio-based drop ins and new alternatives exist for major resin types Cost competitively remains an issue at current oil price
Value chain approach 4 the introduction of new materials Biobased & Recyclable PEF or PLA versus a Packaging Agreement & Infrastructure focussing on only PET, PP, PE,..
[RECYCLE] Mechanical & Chemical Recycling
Recycling Control the value chain...but focus! Scale, trading, compliance, partnering, glocal Competition with virgin material (oil price) Remember: recycling often is an artificial market (value-chain deficit) Upcycling : quality, quantity, consistency and continuity Various factors determine quality end product (table)
New Mechanical Recycling Examples Plastic Sorting Centre Rotterdam 90% Material Recycled Plastic Packages >50 % of separately collected household plastic packaging in the Netherlands Design4Recycling: on-site testing New Technologies developed in comakership with science institutes & revolving funds: magnetic density sorting Partnerships: QCP is producing high quality PE and PP compounds from post-consumer and post-industrial waste.
Chemical Recycling: examples The Nylon 6 example Chemical PET Recycling
Some examples from plastic packaging
Challenges in plastics packaging Great recycling is a result of good sorting Complex system of material flows Laminates, additives and fillers make it even more complex. But product-protection is key starting point. How to combine this complexity with sustainability? And how combine this with regulation? Difficult flows PVC packaging (bottles, sleeves, liners) 5% of Plastic Packaging market Substances of concern Disturbs PET Recycling EPS/(Expanded) Polystyreen (disposable trays, packaging) Technically recycable 3% of Plastic Packaging market Bulky Contaminated (food) Labels Full colour full body sleeves Paper labels on plastics containers Not water soluble Glue
Strategies for sustainable packaging Lighter with similar performance Contains more recycled content by similar performance More sustainable materials; Compacted, better volume to weight ratio; Made suitable for reuse/recycling (e.g. in parts that can be disassembled); Reduced weight per unit of use; Designed in such a way that less product-failure occurs.
Monitoring of Packages and expected results in 2018
A non Packaging example Value chain project: Vanderlande ACP TRAY The present (Automated Case Picking) TRAY is made form virgin amterial and does not fulfil the stringent criteria posed by the clients Approach: Vanderlande & supply chain partners drafted specificaties (PvE) Four work sessions with value chain partners (guided by Partners for Innovation) Schoeller Allibert developed a TRAY according to specs with additional functionalities enabling handling of the ACP. Veolia (AKG) Polymers offered a recycled PP grade in line with specs. Application of 100% recycled PP The new TRAY consists of 100% post-consumer rpp The TRAY is a bit heavier (3,2 kg) compared to the original tray, but fulfils all criteria Result: An average warehouse uses 100.000 trays, or approx. 320 ton rpp. This strengthens the demand for rpp Compared to virgin PP this accounts for an energy of approx. 43 GJ/ton, or 15.480 GJ for each project Automatic Case Picking TRAY 650 x 450 x 125 mm Max. load 32 kg Mass: 3,2 [kg] for rpp
A non Packaging example: Food Box Recycling
A non Packaging example: Philips PerfectCare Eco Steam
A non Packaging example: Mercedes B-Class Electric Drive
A non Packaging example: Senseo UP
A non Packaging example: Volkswagen
Innovation and scaling up Enabling technologies in the plastic value chain
Programmes for start-ups and scale-ups Challenges Start-up Boosters Start-up Initiatives Hubs Demonstration Area s / Pilots Scale-up
Value chain perspectives of packaging: all have a role to play! 1] Raise quality of recycled plastics 2] Raise number of applications with recyclate 3] Create a market for recycled plastics 4] Improve the recyclability of packaging 5] Stimulate inhabitants to separate waste 6] Improve collection & sorting rates 7] improve the quality of the recycling & recyclate
The Value Hill
Exploring opportunities of a company The Circular flows in my company
Thank you for your attention!