Page 167 - CW E-Magazine (29-4-2025)

Special Report

Plastics and circularity – caught between necessity

and potential

2025 from October 8-15 in Düs- 413.8-mt of plastics were produced
seldorf has set itself the goal of worldwide, according to Plastics
K addressing the central issues of Europe, but the share of recycled mate-
our times. One of its three Hot Topics rials continues to be low: only 8.7% of
reads “Shaping the Circular Economy”. plastics were recycled – most of them
Reason enough to shed some light on by mechanical recycling – whereas the
the current state of affairs in terms lion’s share was incinerated or land-
of circularity six months ahead of the fi lled. This is happening even though
world-leading trade fair of the plastics recyclates hold an enormous poten-
and rubber industry. tial. Their production requires mark-
new jobs to be created worldwide by edly less energy than the production
The world is experiencing a raw the transition to a circular economy by of new pro-ducts from fossil raw
material crisis: more than 100-bt (bil- 2030. More and more use cases show materials, thereby substantially reducing
lion tonnes) of raw materials are con- that circularity makes not only eco- CO emissions. On top of this, their use
sumed annually but over 90% of the logical but also economic sense. For increases supply security – a factor of
raw materials used are not recycled. An instance, the German Cabka Group rising importance in times of geopoliti-
alarming ratio fl agged up by the Euro- annually produces pallets and crates cal crises.
pean Investment Bank (EIB). Rising from some 150,000 tonnes of recycled
CO costs, volatile raw material prices plastics by their own accounts – prov- However, recycling is technically
2
and geopolitical insecurities put addi- ing thereby how waste can be turned demanding – and often more expensive
tional pressure on companies to man- into valuable products. than producing new plastics. After
age resources more carefully. all, post-consumer plastics have to be
Plastics industry: a key sector with sorted, cleaned and prepared with great
Circularity is considered the deci- catching up to do effort. In addition, the legal requirements
sive lever for achieving a sustainable The plastics industry plays a pivotal are strict, high-quality recyclates scarce
future. An analysis by management role in this transformation. In 2023, and many processes energy-intensive –
consultancy Material Economics shows
that Europe could save 450-mt (million
tonnes) of CO equivalents through
2
closed material cycles by 2030 – this
corresponds to 8% of the current emissions.
In the long term, the Ellen MacArthur
Foundation forecasts that up to 45%
of emissions could be avoided by a
closed-loop circular economy.

This transformation also holds
enormous economic potential: accord-
ing to estimates by consulting group
EY, the use of secondary raw materials
reduces energy consumption by 20-90%,
saves large amounts of water and
could save European fi rms up to €465-bn
in material costs per year. The Inter-
national Labour Organisation (ILO)
also expects seven to eight million

Chemical Weekly April 29, 2025 167

Contents Index to Advertisers Index to Products Advertised