Confusing signals from PET recyclers

Mar 05, 2024

Recycling is a big public policy and industry focus, obviously. Post-consumer content is also important for brand owners.

But it doesn't always make fiscal sense, so rather than a steady uptick in investments for more capacity with rewarding paybacks, you sometimes end up with mixed messaging.

Consider a couple of stories from our sister paper Sustainable Plastics last week. In Rostock, Germany, Veolia Umweltservice GmbH is closing a plant that can recycle more than 1 billion PET bottles per year, producing 32,000 metric tonnes of food-grade material.

The decision was the result of the market's "unwillingness to create a sustainable closed loop for PET beverage bottles," the company said. It is retaining operations in Hamburg, Germany, as well as sites in Switzerland, Norway and Sweden.

Meanwhile, PET Baltija, one of the largest PET recyclers in northern Europe and part of Eco Baltia, announced plans for a 35 million euro ($37.8 million) PET recycling plant in Olaine, Latvia, it says will be the among the largest and modern in Europe.

PET Baltija says the investment will make it a leading recycler in all of Europe.

Obviously, efficiency has something to do with the decisions as does the cost of operating in Germany vs. Latvia. The new plant in Latvia will have all new equipment, tap into renewable energy and be made with the most sustainable construction systems, the company says. It is also closing an older plant in Olaine. Veolia has been operating for 20 years.

But the current state of the recycling business is playing a big part. Veolia says without the fiscal security provided by long-term purchasing commitments, it's not economically viable to keep the plant open.

Is New York City ditching the bags in favor of bins?

City leaders have proposed a new rule that requires food-producing businesses to store their waste only in solid containers with secure lids, rather leaving bags on the sidewalk, to help cut down on its rat population, our sister paper Crain's New York Business writes.

That could affect 24,000 businesses.

There's no timeline yet for the change and the city says restaurants and other shops will have to find a container that "works for them." It is developing a plan for city-owned containers in residential areas, but businesses are considered to produce too much waste to use those bins.

As you'd expect, restaurants are balking at the proposal. A hearing on it is set for June 22.

Does a motto improve business performance?

When PN's Jim Johnson visited Brückner Group SE's new U.S. headquarters in Dover, N.H., he noted that one of the walls includes a take on a quote from a Revolutionary War hero. While Gen. John Stark's "Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils" was actually part of written correspondence long after the war, New Hampshire adopted a shortened version — "Live free or die" — as its state motto.

Brückner Group USA CEO Matt Sieverding adapted that to "Think free and try, Failure is not the worst of evils," for the company.

"It's not bad if there is a failure," Sieverdine said. "You learn more from your failures than you learn from your successes."

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