Welcome to the Plastics Weekly, NEO’s regular news monitoring of the plastics industry.
Every week, we publish a roundup of the top developments in plastics and sustainability – from regulatory changes to company news.
This week’s highlights:
- The U.S. will consider reducing plastics in federal procurement amid pressure from environmental groups. The General Services Administration, which manages federal property and serves as the government’s purchasing authority, is seeking input from the public on the use of plastic in federal contracts to craft requirements and reporting mechanisms aimed at reducing single-use plastic. The U.S. government spends more than $650 billion on products and services each year, and the latest move could help efforts to find alternatives to a major source of U.S. waste. (Reuters)
- Tyre manufacturer Michelin is leading a European plastics chemical recycling initiative to process hard-to-recycle post-consumer waste. The consortium of 18 European organisations, called the WhiteCycle project, aims to develop a circular economy to convert “complex waste containing textile made of plastic into products with high added value.” The €10-million project hopes to develop capacity to recycle more than 2 million tonnes of PET, the third most widely used plastic in the world, by 2030. (European Rubber Journal)
- A recent IDTechEx report examines how the plastics industry can harness carbon capture to use C02 as a feedstock in the production of polymers. As emissions soar, the emerging carbon capture and utilization (CCU) industry offers a solution towards a circular carbon economy. The report, ”Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Utilization 2022-2042: Technologies, Market Forecasts, and Players,” analyzes the opportunities and challenges of creating this proposed economy. (Packaging Europe)
