LONDON (ICIS)–France is diverting more of its
mixed plastic waste to landfill or incineration
because of a drop in man-power at separation
and sorting facilities due to coronavirus,
sources in the recycled polyethylene
terephthalate (R-PET) market said this week.
Regardless of what material is being removed
from the recycling stream, the move to
incineration or landfill will reduce the amount
of post-consumer PET bottles in France.
The majority of sources also agreed that the
problem was impacting mixed plastic waste and
not just post-consumer PET bottles.
“The problem is the lack of masks and
hydro-alcoholic gel for the personnel. In some
municipalities, the sorting centre prefers [to]
incinerate instead [of] sorting the plastics
bottles, because they are understaffed,” a
French recycler said.
This, in turn, is likely to have a knock-on
effect on R-PET flakes.
One supplier of flakes to the French market
estimated that up to 60% of the sorting
facilities in the country may be closed due to
the lack of manpower.
Sources were quick to point out there was no
official figure for the number of affected
plants, however.
“To date, 65% of the selective collection
volumes are sorted and centres that had closed
will open again in the coming days,” said
Sebastien Petithuguenin, director general at
recycler and waste management firm PAPREC
Group, on social media platform LinkedIn.
‘HUGE’ ISSUES WITH BALES
A buyer in the sheet market expressed concern
about the impact the closures will have on
supply in the wider European market.
“There is not too much availability of bales
because of the coronavirus. France has huge
issue [with] bales, a lot of sorting centres
are shutting down and burning the waste, which
will shorten availability,” the buyer said.
“Even if France is not active in selling
[recyclate] outside of [the country], it means
the quantities they can’t get internally
they’ll source from outside, and that concerns
me.
“I’m not sure if the [domestic] quantities that
will be left without French production can be
met,” the buyer concluded.
A producer of post-consumer bottle bales in
Germany said it had spoken to a recycler in
France who confirmed it has closed operation
for a few weeks due to the lack of feedstock.
PANDEMIC IMPACT
The
impact of the coronavirus is now being felt
across the recycling markets, including R-PET,
recycled polyethylene (R-PE) and recycled
polypropylene (R-PP).
As well as supply and logistics issues, lower
virgin PET prices may also lead some buyers and
converters to switch back to virgin material
where possible because of the lower prices, and
where PET is more readily available than R-PET.
It is not clear how long France will continue
with this situation, but participants in the
R-PET market expect that, if prolonged due to
the coronavirus, it will have a significant
impact on availability and prices in both
France and beyond.
Front page picture: A recycling centre in
France
Source: Jacques Witt/Sipa/Shutterstock
