Sustainable Plastics - October 2021 - 36

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recycling
continued from page 35
applications using recycled
materials may emerge.
Korea's Ministry of Food and
Drug Safety revised legislation
allowing the use of R-PET
and polyethylene naphthalate
(R-PEN) in food contact materials
as part of multi-layer
structures. Thailand's Food
and Drug Administration is
considering permitting the use
of R-PET and R-HDPE for food
contact applications. China's
National Center for Food Safety
Risk Assessment (CFSA)
agency is initiating a risk assessment
method for recycled
food contact materials.
Historically, the European
food grade recycled polyolefin
market has had difficulty
in growing because the level
of investment was not seen to
carry sufficient returns. The UK
is the only successful example
of food grade recycled HDPE
with EFSA positive opinion due
to the discrete waste collection
stream for post-consumer
HDPE milk bottles used as its
feedstock. The remaining EFSA
positive opinions for food grade
recycled polyolefins are for
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 
Food grade capacity by region and by agency
closed loop processing PP and
HDPE transit packaging.
From the regional perspective,
although Asia Pacific is
the largest producer of recycled
resins alone, accounting for almost
45% of the global capacity,
the region's food grade resins
only represent nearly 5% of
the region's total recycling capacity,
while the United States
and Europe have a share of 20%
and 10%, respectively.
Reasons behind that include
the fact that the largest
recycling end market in Asia
is fibre, which is not required
to be food grade. In Europe,
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for instance, sheet and food
contact bottles are the largest
end markets using R-PET from
PCR bottles, with a share of
the total R-PET supply of 38%
and 32%, respectively, in 2019.
In the United States, food contact
bottles have been gaining
space in the market supply of
R-PET, growing from a 21%
share in 2018 to 28% in 2019,
while fibre reduced from 47%
to 41% year over year.
FDA LNOs and EFSA positive
opinions are internationally recognised
high standards for food
contact plastic recycled material
throughout the industry and al
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
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 
 
Food grade capacity by region
lows companies with these accreditations
outside the US and
EU to potentially trade with them.
FDA is the largest agency
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  
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alone with almost 35% of the
global registered recycling
food grade capacity whereas
EFSA represents slightly
over 20%. While EFSA is more
prevalent in Europe, FDA is
more widely used internationally,
as represented in the following
graph. One of the main
reasons for that is the fact that
the process, including traceability
of feedstocks to meet
the 95% food contact origin
source, to obtain a EFSA positive
opinion is challenging for
some suppliers and is not a requirement
of FDA.
The EU has mandated the in
dustry
to include 25% recycled
content in PET bottles by 2025
and 30% in all plastic bottles
by 2030 under the Single Use
Plastics (SUP) Directive. Likewise,
in the United States, in
California, manufacturers are
required to include an annual
average of 15% of post-consumer
recycled plastic (PCR) in
beverage containers starting in
2022. By 2025 the mandate is
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36
2020
20.09.2021 09:05:04
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Sustainable Plastics - October 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sustainable Plastics - October 2021
