French sorting plants re-opening amid coronavirus but other regions face collection uncertainty

Matt Tudball

27-Mar-2020

LONDON (ICIS)–Sorting facilities in France are re-opening after some earlier shutdowns in relation to the coronavirus, with 65% of facilities currently operating, a spokesperson for the French Federation of Recycling Plants (FeDerec) confirmed on Friday.

Speaking exclusively to ICIS, the spokesperson said they hope that up to 70% of the sorting facilities will be operational by the beginning of next week.

“Some collections… stopped almost straight away, but some [facilities] are starting again with the sorting,” the spokesperson said. “Right now 65% are open, and by Monday, 70% [will be open].”

Earlier in the week, sources in the recycled polyethylene terephthalate (R-PET) market said sorting facilities in France were closing down as a result of the coronavirus, with a lack of man-power attributed as the main cause. As a result, more mixed plastic waste was being sent to either landfill or for incineration.

However, during further discussions with market players as the week progressed, it appears the reason for the reduction in sorting was down to the collection of waste, not the running of the sorting facilities.

“The problem was more in the collection teams. Some municipalities tried to organise collection [of post-consumer waste] with less people to reduce interaction in light of the virus, and collected the [household] waste alongside the recycling,” a source in the French market said.

Usually in most parts of France, household waste is collected separately from post-consumer waste, but as the coronavirus situation intensified in France, the two were collected together, but priority was given to the household waste, resulting in less post-consumer waste collection.

Therefore, sorting facilities were processing more household waste compared to post-consumer, resulting in more material going to landfill or incineration.

However, as waste collection companies had adapted to circumstances around the coronavirus, more and more are returning to separate collection systems, which should increase the amount of recyclate entering the stream, and reduce the amount of mixed plastic waste going to landfill or incineration.

Waste collection in other countries is also being impacted by the coronavirus. Sources in the recycled polypropylene (R-PP) and recycled polyethylene (R-PE) markets said some local councils were focusing on the collection of household waste over post-consumer.

In Italy, Conai, the National Packaging Consortium, sent a letter the president of the Council of Ministers, the head of Civil Protection, as well as the ministers of the Environment, Economic Development, Economy and Finance and the president of the National Association of Italian Municipalities (ANCI) requesting action to avoid significant problems in waste collection across the country, according to Italian website polimerica.it.

Meanwhile, the Netherlands has classed waste management companies as a key industry sector, which should allow for collection to carry on as close to normal as possible within national guidelines related to the coronavirus.

Demand for virgin PET in both Europe and the Americas has actually risen in light of the coronavirus because of increased demand for food-grade material going into food-packaging applications and water bottles.

Demand for R-PET has also seen an increase during the pandemic.

Sébastien Petithuguenin, director general of French recycling company Paprec said, “Our costumers called us and wanted to be sure that we would not stop… production. They even launched more orders than planned.”

Across Europe there are concerns that, while demand is good from some parts, border closures, logistics issues, together with lower virgin PET prices may put a ceiling on this growth in the coming weeks. However, with on-going uncertainty brought to the market by the pandemic, players are doing their best to cope with a situation that’s changing on an almost daily basis.

Focus article by Matt Tudball

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