Circular Plastics: Additives, Recycling & EU Regulation
Plastic does not come back the same as it left. The guides on what degrades, what the rules now demand, and where the gap between the two is a business.
The circular argument for plastics is simple to state and hard to execute: keep the material in use instead of making new material from oil. Everything difficult about it is in the execution, and most of the difficulty is that plastic does not come back the same as it left. This hub collects what we have written about that gap, and about the rules now closing it.
The material side
- GUIDEMechanical versus chemical recycling3 minWhat each does to the polymer, and why only one of them leaves anything for an additive to repair.
- GUIDEHDPE recycling explained4 minThe best established polyolefin loop, and what fails on the second pass.
- GUIDErPET packaging4 minTwo separate gates, food law and physics.
- GUIDERunning PCR blown film3 minThe process where recycled polyethylene fails most visibly.
- GUIDErPET thermoforming5 minWhy recycled sheet sags, and what the additive is claimed to do about it.
The rule side
- GUIDEEU PPWR6 minThe recycled content minimums for 2030 and 2040.
- GUIDECalifornia AB 7934 minThe same idea, priced per pound instead.
Where the numbers stand
The EU generated 79.7 million tonnes of packaging waste in 2023, of which 15.8 million tonnes was plastic. Overall packaging recycling reached 67.5% against a 70% target for 2030. Plastic packaging has a 55% target and, in 2023, only two member states had passed it while several were under 30%.
Read those two facts together and the investment case states itself: collection is improving faster than quality, mandated demand arrives in 2030, and the difference between material that is collected and material that can be used is a materials problem. That is the problem Nexam Chemical sells into. Whether it captures the value is a separate question, answered quarter by quarter in the data room.