Visiongain has forecasted that the global recycled polyethylene terephthalate market will see a capital expenditure (CAPEX) of $8,374 million in 2020. Aside from economic considerations, recycling is influenced by public sentiment. Developed countries increasingly view industrial activity through the lens of sustainable development. One result can be subsidies for recycling. Consumers often pay more for the collection and processing of material for recycling than they would for land disposal or incineration. Using recycled content in products and making products that are easier to recycle are two measures manufacturers take to be more “environmentally friendly.” The magnitude of this influence on markets is difficult to predict. Clearly, the public would like to take measures that conserve natural resources and minimize the environmental impact of the products they use, but the price they are willing to pay to do so remains unclear. In recent years, developing countries such as China set ambitious targets for plastics recycling.

Market Attractiveness

Europe will process a total of 5.1 billion pounds more post-consumer plastics by 2025 than in 2019. In Europe, there is a trend that virgin resin producers moving into recycling business. This is European companies’ response to the environmental pressures from increasing recycling rate, especially after China’s import ban. Their efforts will help drive the European market to grow at a CAGR of 6.3% in the next five years, much faster than the virgin resin industry in Europe.

The Netherlands-based LyondellBasell is one that has taken this move. In July 2018, the company announced a cooperation project with the Germany-based Karlsruhe Institute of Technology to advance the chemical recycling of post-consumer plastics. The focus is to develop a new catalyst and process technology to decompose post-consumer plastics into monomers for reuse in polymerization. In early 2018 LyondellBasell entered the recycling business for the first time by setting up a 50:50 joint venture with Suez. The joint venture, called Quality Circular Polymers, aims to developing high-quality recycled polyolefins from the mechanical recycling of sorted post-consumer plastics.

Another large European resin and chemical maker Borealis announced in July 2018 it was purchasedby Austrian PE recycling company Kunststoffrecycling, which processes approximately 28,000 metric tons of post-consumer plastics a year into high-quality LDPE and HDPE recyclates.

The Bangkok-headquartered Indorama Ventures Public Co. Ltd. (IVL), a global chemical and plastics producer, favored the European recycling business even earlier. In 2011, IVL acquired Wellman France Recyclage SAS, one of Europe’s largest PET recyclers. Being optimistic about the European plastics recycling business, IVL acquired Sorepla in August 2018, another big European PET and HDPE recycling company.

India will increase post-consumer plastics processing by more than 3 billion pound per year by 2025 from the 2019 level India will increase post-consumer plastics processing by more than 3 billion pound per year by 2025 from the 2019 level, which provide a great opportunity to the industry. In 2017, MBA Polymers entered the Indian market and signed agreements with several Indian waste management companies for setting up new production unit targeting initially a capacity of 50,000 tons of plastic waste per year. MBA Polymers India aims to supplying the Indian market with recycled ABS, PP and HIPS.

The good news is that China’s demand for recycled resin pellets is still high, and many small-size Chinese recyclers and being cracking down There will be no big room for big processors to set up new facilities in China due to the shortage of raw materials. The good news is that China’s demand for recycled resin pellets is still high, and many small-size Chinese recyclers and being cracking down. Therefore, large recycling companies may have a less competition, while the price of recycled pellets is very likely to remain high. China will also buy much more recycled resin pellets, mainly from the big scrap exporters in the past, such as Japan, Germany and the U.S.

PET and HDPE bottles are relatively easy to extract and thus they are often recycled. Plastics are distributed widely in the waste stream. Some concentrations of plastic waste occur in such a way that they may be practically collected and recycled. Materials currently recovered in high volumes include bottles and films. Bottles and films may be described as mixed wastes in that many different resin types are used in both, but isolation of a single resin film or bottle is relatively easy. Sources likely to be targets of increased recovery efforts include several that contain mixtures of plastics more difficult to separate than those found in either bottles or films. Electronic waste and carpet, and to a lesser extent, automotive plastics, are included in this group. Some recycling is occurring in these waste streams, but recent efforts to divert these materials, especially electronic waste, from landfills will spur further recycling initiatives.

Food & beverage segment held major share Global recycled polyethylene terephthalate market is broken down by five major end-uses such as fibre, sheet & films, food & beverage, non-food bottles, and other end-uses. Food & beverage segment held major share in this market with $3,126 million in 2019 and is expected to grow at the highest CAGR of 8.0% through 2020-2030. Fibre and non-food bottles sub segments are expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.7% from 2020-2030.

Bottles and containers are the single-largest source of post-consumer material recycled Recycling of bottles and containers should continue to increase slowly. Collection programs for these products are fairly well-established. PET bottle recycling is becoming increasingly complicated by new sizes, colors and layering techniques. Domestic PET recyclers faced tough competition for materials with export markets in the past decade. As the export market shrinks, an increase of reclamation capacity is anticipated over the next few years. HDPE containers should also see increases, supported in part by demand from wood/fiber plastic composite and plastic lumber makers. Film recycling is also expected to benefit from rising composite and plastic lumber markets as manufacturers seek new sources of HDPE. Some manufacturers are turning to PP due to shortages of available recycled HDPE. Recovery of plastics from durable goods will be driven mainly by efforts to divert electronics and carpet from land disposal.

Notes for Editors If you are interested in a more detailed overview of this report, please send an e-mail to sara.peerun@visiongain.com or call her on +44 (0) 207 336 6100.

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