Extrusion International 4-2021

18 Extrusion International 4/2021 INDUSTRY NEWS R-Cycle www.r-cycle.org Dr Benedikt Brenken, Director of theR-Cycle Initiative, accepts theaward onbehalf of the consortium „ R-Cycle – the digital product passport for sustainable plas- tics – receives the German Sustainability Award 2021 in the “Packaging” category. The award is conferred by the German Institute for Service Quality (DISQ), the German news channel ntv, and DUP UNTERNEHMER (German Entrepreneurship Plat- form for Digitalization and Sustainability). Plastic packaging has become an indispensable part of our ev- eryday lives and there is often no alternative – such as in medi- cal technology or in the packaging of perishable foodstuffs. However, the problems associated with the growing global demand for plastic packaging cannot be overlooked and are becoming increasingly acute. For example, even in the “recy- cling land” of Germany, only about 6% of plastics from do- mestic waste are recycled to make equivalent new products. The largest percentage of over 65% is burned in waste incin- erators*. One reason for the low recycling rate is the present dif fi culty to identify the different compositions of plastic packaging in the recycling process. Sorting is considerably improved when a digital product passport is af fi xed to plastic packaging to display this information. R-Cycle is such a digital product pass- port. It is based on an open standard and is machine-readable via special markings. R-Cycle automatically registers all recycling-related proper- ties during packaging production and passes this information along the value chain. Waste sorting plants can then identify recyclable packaging and form recyclable fractions. This is the basis for obtaining pure and therefore high-quality recyclates as part of efforts to set up a functioning circular economy. “We are delighted to receive this award,” says Dr Benedikt Brenken, Director of the R-Cycle Initiative. “Digitalization and sustainability are two megatrends that we have integrated bene fi cially in R-Cycle. The use of a digital product passport, as also required by the European Union, offers enormous po- tential to increase the recycling rate of plastic packaging.” Digital Plastic Recycling – Sustainability Award 2021 R-Cycle is under development to market maturity by leading companies and organizations along the entire plastic-packag- ing life cycle. Besides improving product sustainability, manu- facturers can increase their process ef fi ciency and product quality by using a digital product passport. Detailed informa- tion about the raw materials used speeds up production and registering the product properties adds value for customers in downstream processes. *Conversio Study 2017 (Stoffstromdiagramm Kunststoffe in Deutschland) / Plastikatlas Heinrich Böll Stiftung The R-Cycle consortium: Arburg, Brückner Maschinenbau, Comexi, Erema Group, GS1 Germany, Institut für Kunststoffverarbeitung (IKV), Kampf, Kautex Maschinenbau, Multivac, Prodata, Reifenhäuser Group, Steinert „ The mood across all European plastics industry sectors and regions seems to be rather optimistic, even if the global supply-chain crisis and pandemic-related problems are impeding business performance throughout Europe. These are the key results of the 6th half-year readers sur- vey on the European plastics industry’s business perfor- mance and outlook, conducted by PIE – Plastics Informa- tion Europe in July 2021. The questionnaire was open to PIE subscribers and other industry players, and data has been gathered from more than 300 participants from 51 countries. Having struggled with the pandemic for longer than ex- pected, a heavy percentage of our respondents are expect- Economic Situation in the European Plastics Industry ing to hire more staff in the second half of 2021, despite the fact that a number of them don’t expect coronavirus-related problems to go away anytime soon: one-third of the Euro- pean industry players say they’re yet to face the worst, with less than half saying they have fully bounced back from the dip caused by the pandemic. Business performance in H1 2021 for a large number of man- agers in the European plastics industry equaled or outpaced activity in H2 2020, with a huge majority in the Benelux re- gion declaring that business was so far better this year than the second half of last year. The most optimistic for better business in H2 2021 are the continent’s construction materi- als and technical parts producers.