Deloitte Sustainability Blueprint for Plastics Packaging Waste: Quality Sorting & Recycling Final Report
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Deloitte Sustainability Blueprint for plastics packaging waste: Quality sorting & recycling Final report Contributors: Mathieu Hestin, Andreas Mitsios, Sarah Ait Said, Felix Fouret, Anton Berwald, Victoire Senlis. Deloitte Sustainability | Acknowledgment Acknowledgment Plastics Recyclers Europe and Deloitte Sustainability would like to thank Plastics Europe, European Plastics Recycling and Recovery (EPRO), Albea, Aniplast, Association Alliance Chimie Recyclage, Corepla, Danone, Duales System Deutschland, Eslava Plásticos, Elipso, MTM Plastics, MultiPet, MultiPort, RECOUP, Renault and WRAP, for the information provided and overall support throughout the duration of the study. 2 / 40 Deloitte Sustainability | Table of contents Table of contents Acknowledgment ___________________________________________________ 2 Table of contents ___________________________________________________ 3 Figures, tables and glossary ___________________________________________ 4 Glossary _________________________________________________________________ 4 Figures __________________________________________________________________ 4 Tables __________________________________________________________________ 4 I. Executive Summary _____________________________________________ 6 II. Context and objectives ___________________________________________ 8 II.1. The complexity of plastics ______________________________________________ 8 II.2. The demand of plastics in the EU _______________________________________ 10 II.3. Increasing awareness ________________________________________________ 11 II.4. Objectives and scope ________________________________________________ 11 II.4.1. Objectives of the study ____________________________________________________ 11 II.4.2. Scope _________________________________________________________________ 12 III. Plastics packaging recycling chain in the EU _________________________ 13 III.1. Recycling performance in the EU _______________________________________ 13 III.2. Organisation of the recycling chain _____________________________________ 14 III.3. Quantitative overview of the current situation _____________________________ 15 III.3.1. Current situation of the plastics packaging flows ________________________________ 15 III.3.2. Definitions of products and processes _________________________________________ 17 III.3.3. Waste generation and collection _____________________________________________ 17 III.3.4. Performance of sorting and recycling _________________________________________ 18 III.3.5. End use _______________________________________________________________ 18 III.4. Qualitative overview of the current situation ______________________________ 19 III.4.1. Product design __________________________________________________________ 19 III.4.2. Waste collection _________________________________________________________ 21 III.4.3. Sorting and recycling _____________________________________________________ 24 III.4.4. End use ________________________________________________________________ 24 III.4.5. Lack of communication across the whole value chain _____________________________ 25 III.5. Challenges and opportunities __________________________________________ 25 IV. Solutions to achieve the expected targets ___________________________ 27 IV.1. The situation in 2025 ________________________________________________ 27 IV.1.1. Waste generation ________________________________________________________ 29 IV.1.2. Collection, sorting and exports ______________________________________________ 29 IV.1.3. End-users ______________________________________________________________ 29 IV.2. Measures required to reach the 2025 target_______________________________ 30 IV.2.1. Measures on product design ________________________________________________ 31 IV.2.2. Measures on waste collection _______________________________________________ 32 IV.2.3. Measures on sorting / recycling _____________________________________________ 33 IV.2.4. Measures on end-use _____________________________________________________ 33 IV.2.5. Horizontal measures ______________________________________________________ 34 IV.3. Impacts assessment of measures _______________________________________ 34 IV.3.1. Impact assessment results _________________________________________________ 35 V. Conclusions __________________________________________________ 39 3 / 40 Deloitte Sustainability | Figures, tables and glossary Figures, tables and glossary Glossary EoL End-of-life (E)PS (Expanded) polystyrene EVOH Ethylene Vinyl Alcohol HDPE High density polyethylene HH Household LDPE Low density polyethylene Mt Million tonnes PET Polyethylene terephtalate PO Polyolefins PP Polypropylene PS Polysterene PU Polyurethane PVC Polyvinyl chloride RDF Refused derived fuel t Tonnes Figures Figure 1: Global market share of the most used resins and main applications .......................................... 9 Figure 2: Plastics demand per main market sectors in 2014 .................................................................10 Figure 3: Differences between the 2 studies carried out by Deloitte .......................................................12 Figure 4: Recycling chain in the EU ...................................................................................................15 Figure 5: Sankey diagram of the plastics packaging waste flows ...........................................................16 Figure 6: Collection rates of PET bottles in 2015 .................................................................................23 Figure 7: Challenges and opportunities for the recycling sector .............................................................26 Figure 8: Sankey diagram of the plastics packaging waste flows in 2025 ................................................28 Figure 9: Measures required to achieve the 2025 target.......................................................................31 Figure 10: Comparison of annual GHG emissions in the scenarios Targets, compared to BAU in 2025 (in Mt) ...................................................................................................................................................36 Figure 11: Number of direct jobs created along the plastic recycling value chain in Targets 2025 compared to respective BAU (in FTE) ..................................................................................................................37 Figure 12: Average operating costs of the plastic recycling value chain and revenues from recycled plastics at the end of the chain in 2025 (comparison of BAU and Targets scenarios in million EUR) ...........................38 Tables Table 1: Grade criteria ....................................................................................................................10 Table 2: EU countries with the highest demand in plastics in 2014 ........................................................11 Table 3: Synthesis of the scope........................................................................................................12 Table 4: Plastic Packaging Collection rates (%) and share of total plastic packaging waste in 28 Member States ..........................................................................................................................................13 4 / 40 Deloitte Sustainability | Figures, tables and glossary Table 5: Plastic Packaging Collection Rates (%) and share of total plastic packaging waste in the six Member States with the highest waste generation .........................................................................................14 Table 6: Share of generated waste per origin, shape and resin in the EU, in 2014....................................18 Table 7: Collection rate of generated waste per origin, shape and resin in the EU, in 2014 ........................18 Table 8: penetration rate of recyclates in end-use demand ...................................................................19 Table 9: Collection schemes in France, Germany, UK, Spain and Italy and their performances on the collection and recycling of polyolefin plastics ......................................................................................23 25 Table 10: Content of contaminants in PET flakes ..............................................................................23 Table 11: Penetration rate of recyclates per sector ..............................................................................30 5 / 40 Deloitte Sustainability | Executive Summary I. Executive Summary Due to the wide range of physical, mechanical and chemical properties of resins, plastics are used in a multitude of formulations and applications. As a result, plastics are used in various sectors in the EU with a demand of 48 million tonnes per year. Packaging which is the focus of the present study makes up for 40% of this use. Overall, the end-of-life treatment of plastics is underperforming, especially when compared to more homogenous materials such as metals or glass. The ongoing revision of the Circular Economy Package demonstrates increasing recovery targets for all materials, including plastics. Specifically, for plastics, the recycling target is expected to increase from 22.5% to 55% by 2025. The increase in target rates was in part motivated by the raising awareness among the general public on the externalities of plastics. The present study presents a quantitative and a qualitative analysis of the main packaging resins (PET, HDPE, LDPE, PP) based on the flows in France,