OPIS Market News

Ahead of upcoming legislation mandating a 25% minimum recycled content for single-use plastic beverage bottles starting in 2025, some in the market are eyeing an uptick in prices, with buyers hoping to secure recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) volume and quality.

In other markets, a fall in the price of virgin plastics is pressuring feedstock and waste plastic prices lower, with bale prices dropping and an influx of less expensive imports, while recycled polypropylene (rPP) and recycled polyethylene (rPE) markets face softening demand.

COREPLA is a private, non-profit consortium with public interest purposes, established by law in 1997, and in 2023, the group had 2,456 members divided into 4 categories: producers, transformers, self-producers and recyclers and recoverers. They spoke with OPIS recycled plastics editor Ellis Nicoll about COREPLA and its role and objectives in the changing landscape of recycled plastic in Italy and Europe.

OPIS: How does COREPLA decide which plastics to recycle? Are there any plans to expand into new types of plastics or materials?

COREPLA: COREPLA started its activity more than 25 years ago, by sending to liquid PET and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) to recycling containers. As the years go by, our activity has improved and now we have a product portfolio with more than 20 items. We are continuously working to take all opportunities and challenges coming from the market.

OPIS: What is the main source of polyolefins plastic waste last for the two years – post-industrial or post-consumer (PCR)? If PCR is recycled, do you manage to maintain a margin?

COREPLA: COREPLA manages the plastic packaging flows coming from household separate waste collection.

OPIS: Can you provide a breakdown of the percentage of different plastic types COREPLA recycles annually?

Recycled Data From COREPLA in Metric Tons (post-consumer waste)

COREPLA: See the 2023 balance sheet here.

OPIS: How has availability/quality of scrap plastic changed in recent years and what challenges do you face in securing them for recycling?

COREPLA: We offer the market several different products that are sorted according to specific product specification that is followed by our 32 sorting centers spread all over Italy. We constantly work to improve product quality and depth of range and co-operate with the recycling industry to provide them with the best possible products.

OPIS: Are there any challenges you face when dealing with contamination in plastic waste streams and how do you manage this?

COREPLA: We promote the full circularity of the packaging, trying to reduce issues on recycling processes that coming from non-recyclable materials.

OPIS: How have recycling targets/ legislation and certain bans on plastic materials impacted your recycling streams and business strategies?

COREPLA: We are working to exceed those Italian targets that are established according to current rules, included the PPWR regulation that will be implemented soon.

OPIS: How do you see COREPLA’s role in the wider European recycling market? Are there specific competitors or partners that significantly influence your business?

COREPLA: Our purpose is to remain the reference point for the Italian Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme. We hope that the Italian EPR system, together with separate collection waste management, can be seen as an example of an efficient and effective way to ensure that Italy can reach EU’s recycling targets.

OPIS: Are there any partnerships COREPLA is seeking to develop and why?

COREPLA: COREPLA supports and sustains the circular economy in Italy and in Europe. We are willing to co-operate with any actor on the market who is prepared to improve plastic packaging recycling, especially with those companies who are committed to eco-design, and designs for recycling programs.

OPIS: What would be the typical investment to build a polyolefin recycling plant, eg 20,000 mt/year capacity?

COREPLA: We don’t have direct investment in plants. Our role versus the recycling industry is to provide plastic packaging—which comes from separate waste collections—in a uniform, equal condition to European recycling companies.

Despite efforts to reduce plastic waste, the world’s rubbish pile continues to build.

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Chemical recycling, particularly in the U.S., was a dominant theme of the recycled plastics industry in 2022, and it’s creating new commodities from all manner of wastes that until recently had been considered virtually unrecyclable.

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For the European benzene market, perhaps only the football World Cup (which most of us have been watching on our home screens, at night, wearing thick ski socks instead of shorts and sipping hot herbal teas instead of cold beverages in a pub) has been a rival in spectacle compared to this month’s tumultuous settlement of the contract price (CP).

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The world party of the styrenics chain of late has seen benzene traveling from Europe to the US and polystyrene traveling from Asia to the US. Not only does this indicate that prices in the US are high enough to attract imports, but what’s missing is also notable. What’s missing? Styrene.

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