PET trays recycling guidelines

Plastics Recyclers Europe released the design-for-recycling guidelines for PET trays.

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

  • PRE releases recycling guidelines for PET trays.
  • PRE calls the value chain to team-up to build-up a PET Trays platform.

These guidelines, one for clear thermoforms and another for coloured thermoforms, set the basic principles to create PET trays which could be treated by future plastics recycling plants dedicated to this stream.

The eco-design of PET trays is a first compulsory step to start the development of PET trays recycling. Additionally, this waste stream of 800,000 tonnes must be collected and sorted accordingly to create a dedicated waste stream. These two actions are essential in order to create a real recycling stream for PET trays and allow this specific packaging to help reaching the upcoming EU recycling targets.

As a proactive industry, the recyclers are calling the value chain, converters, retailers, brand owners, raw material producers, to join forces to build-up a PET trays platform in order to start a path to a value chain approach for PET trays similar to EPBP (European PET Bottle Platform – www.epbp.org).

Please find the recycling guidelines here.

About Plastics Recyclers Europe

Plastics Recyclers Europe (PRE) is an organization representing the voice of the European plastics recyclers who reprocess plastic waste into high-quality material destined for the production of new articles. Recyclers are important facilitators of the circularity of plastics and the transition towards the circular economy. 

Plastics recycling in Europe is a rapidly growing sector representing over €8.7 billion in turnover, 11.3 million tonnes of installed recycling capacity, more than 730 recycling facilities, and over 30,000 employees.

Plastics Recyclers Europe
Avenue de Broqueville 12
1150 Woluwe Saint-Pierre, Brussels
Belgium