PolyREC has announced that the value chain initiatives Polyolefin Circular Economy Platform (PCEP), Styrenics Circular Solutions (SCS) and European Manufacturers of Expanded Polystyrene (EUMEPS) have joined members Petcore Europe, PlasticsEurope, Plastics Recyclers Europe, and VinylPlus to support the setup of a harmonised, pan-European data collection system for plastics recyclers and converters to record their recycling volumes and use of recycled material.
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PCEP, EUMEPS and SCS join PolyREC
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PolyREC combines data collection knowledge and expertise from Europe’s plastics manufacturers and recyclers, as well as the full range of materials value chains. Expanded industry representation such as this should ensure that the recorded recycled plastics data is comprehensive, consistent and comparable across polymers and sectors.
PCEP Secretary General Venetia Spencer said: “Joining PolyREC and co-creating a polyolefin (PO) branch for RecoTrace is an important contribution to PCEP’s circular polyolefin mission and fulfils our commitment as a Circular Plastics Alliance signatory to establish a transparent and trusted monitoring system … Data plays a central role in the circular economy, accelerating uptake of quality secondary raw materials by establishing trust throughout the system. We all need improved metrics to monitor progress towards circularity, to underpin investment decisions and to support compliance with current and future policies. PCEP is pleased to have joined this partnership to enable recyclers and users of recycled PO with an easy-to-use database to deliver these improved metrics. We welcome more members to accelerate progress together.”
SCS Secretary General Jens Kathmann, added: “Styrenics Circular Solutions is delighted to join PolyREC. This initiative is crucial in monitoring, verifying and reporting plastics recycling via RecoTrace, the innovative common data collection system. The styrenics value chain is fully behind this drive to ensure traceability, transparency, and trust in recycled materials.”
EUMEPS Managing Director Jürgen Lang concluded: “Today is a great day for EUMEPS. Our accession to PolyREC makes me very happy as it is a big step forward towards more transparency. The system will help us to showcase that EPS is already widely collected and recycled, far beyond what is generally recognized. Joining PolyREC will allow our sector to collect more data and to improve recycling rates even more. The verified and monitored set of data will enable us to improve existing recycling schemes and better trace waste streams.”
PolyREC and its members encourage contribution of data from all companies involved in the recycling and use of recycled material to help establish the most robust overview possible of the European recycled plastics market.