Plastic recycling companies such as Attero in Wijster and CuRe in Emmen cannot compete with dirt-cheap new plastic from Asia and the United States. That plastic is being dumped en masse on the European market, causing packaging manufacturers, among others, to buy cheaper new plastic from far across the sea instead of the more expensive recycled plastic from here.
Recycling companies are left with large amounts of plastic. In Groningen, unsellable big bags full of recycled plastic are piling up at Uppact and Veolia in Vroomshoop. At the end of January, the major recycler Umincorp in Rotterdam went bankrupt.
According to Attero, there is currently no money to be made from plastic recycling. And at CuRe, where they recover plastics that are difficult to recycle, the process is even more expensive. CuRe and Attero warn the Dutch government and the EU: take measures and take them quickly.
At Attero, three plastic recycling factories are linked together. It is the largest separation factory in the world, a factory where mixed plastics are sorted by type and a factory that processes the most difficult to reuse plastics, such as films and bread bags. “We continue to produce plastic granules, but it is loss-making,” says Robert Corijn of Attero.
‘Ordinary’ plastic recycling companies are already finding it impossible to compete against the cheap new plastic from the US and China. But it will be very difficult for companies that are experimenting with plastic products that are very difficult to recycle, says CuRe director Marco Brons. CuRe has devised a process to chemically recycle difficult-to-recycle PET bottles indefinitely, including colored bottles.
CuRe is also a pioneer of a technique for recycling polyester from clothing, carpet and mattresses, something that no one else had achieved until then. “But the more complicated the recycling process, the more expensive,” says Brons. “We still have government support for development, but later when we have to run a commercial factory, we will have to compete with cheap and new plastic.”
“That cheap new imported plastic does not include the price of recycling here. Because then the price would be ten times as high. And the bad thing is: the new plastic that is now entering the EU en masse from Asia in particular is recycled there in the old-fashioned way. Made from petroleum. So nothing sustainable. And China gets that cheap oil from Russia,” Brons explains.
Both Corijn and Brons fear that help and stricter rules for new plastic, obligations for reuse and making it more expensive to burn plastic will come too late. Last month, the recycling companies appealed to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management: they want support in the fight against cheap so-called virgin plastic from China and the US. The trade association fears that without support, more recyclers will collapse.
Brons: “There will be mandatory measures for plastic packaging that must contain a certain proportion of recycled plastic. But they will not come until 2030. If recyclers collapse, there will be no more investment in separation and reuse and we will soon be back in the industry twenty years later. the time.”
And as far as his ‘own’ CuRe is concerned: “Nothing has yet been arranged or in preparation for plastics and plastics in textiles.” According to Brons, the government is even working against recycling companies in some places. The legislation ensures that approval is only now being given for the application of recycling processes that were devised seven years ago. As long as you do not have EU approval, you are allowed to put something on the market, but you are not yet certain that you can continue to do so. So investors don’t step in.”
The amount of plastic offered to incinerators in the Netherlands continues to rise. In a letter to the House of Representatives, State Secretary Vivianne Heijnen writes about a “worrisome development. We want to reduce CO2 emissions. Burning plastic actually leads to more CO2.” Companies like Attero and CuRe do not now have the opportunity to do anything about this.