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Wishing you a wonderful holiday and a happy, healthy 2021!

What a year this has been for everyone. I’m sure, like me, you’ll be glad to take some time to switch off over this holiday season after a year full of unexpected anxiety and challenges.

But despite everything, we have all remained committed to our collective goal to deliver a circular polyolefin economy. Playing our part in the transformation to a carbon neutral circular economy for Europe.

It has taken some nimble footwork, but we’ve made progress on all fronts. And for this, I thank you all.

Thank you for your commitment, flexibility and engagement with PCEP in 2020. As we head into the new year we are in a position of growth on all fronts. I am already looking forward to see what we can achieve together in 2021!

In this PCEP Newsletter:

• New Staff & New Offices

• Membership Update

• Share your stories

• Circular Plastics Alliance

• PCEP pallet project

I wish everyone a lovely holiday season, wherever you are. Stay safe. Stay well. And I look forward to seeing you in person again (at some point) in 2021.

With warm wishes,

Venetia

New Staff & New Offices

Hooray – the PCEP team is growing in the new year!

Starting on 4 January, Rebecca Colley-Jones will be joining us as PCEP’s Circular Economy Project Manager. Her role will primarily be supporting the activities of our working groups on Innovating for a Circular Economy, Enhancing Collection & Sorting, and Developing End Markets for Recycled Polyolefins.

Then, starting on 1 February, we welcome Petya Todorova, who is going to be our new Circular Economy Advocacy and Communications Manager. Petya’s role will be to support the activities of the other three working groups, on Communications, Advocacy and Data.

Rebecca has worked her entire career in resource efficiency, waste management and circular economy, most recently in an EU research project on the circularity of plastics from EEE.

Petya is joining us from a flexible packaging converter, and she has a particularly strong background in market research and marketing.

Many of you will by now also know Patirica, who joined us on a part-time basis in July and has done sterling work keeping all our collective activities on track. We are also supported by the team at ianus Group who work closely with us to ensure PCEP is a highly professional outfit, with all legal and financial aspects above reproach. They have done a spectacular job during this our first year as a legal entity. I take this opportunity to thank all the team for their hard-work and successful adaptation to virtual working methods during 2020.

And in November, we moved into our stylish new and sustainably designed offices in Brussels – although with the Coronavirus lockdown in Belgium it was a very low-key change of address. Our new offices are at 6-9 Avenue des Arts, just at Madou for those of you familiar with Brussels. We very much look forward to seeing you there soon, but in the meantime you can take a virtual tour of our new home here.

From the new year we will be sharing the office with Styrenics Circular Solutions. With our common commitment to the circular economy, our two associations have a clear alignment. A shared workspace will allow us to maximize on synergies, exchange information and provide a more pleasant working environment for our teams.

When the pandemic finally recedes, please don’t hesitate to drop in on us - the restaurant has a great reputation…

Membership Update

I’m delighted to announce that we have welcomed a number of new members of PCEP since our AGM. These include the Barbier Group, a leading converter producing polyethylene film; LyondellBasell one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world; APK, bringing traditional mechanical and innovative new recycling expertise; and PepsiCo the global food and drinks manufacturer.

It is really encouraging that, even in the midst of a global crisis, these companies have still made it their priority to join the transformation to a circular polyolefin economy.

If you are interested in joining us, or you know someone who might be interested to join in our mission to drive the circular PO economy please do reach out. Click on the button below or contact Venetia Spencer.

Share your stories!

Don’t be shy! Use PCEP to showcase your innovations, projects and progress towards a polyolefin circular economy. We are collecting members’ case studies to showcase on our website and in our wider communications with the outside world.

If you have a new example of your journey to a circular polyolefin economy please let us know. The Communications WG will be happy to incorporate it in our activities. Email your example to secretariat@pcep.eu

Circular Plastics Alliance

PCEP is actively participating in the Circular Plastics Alliance, from representing polyolefins on the Steering Committee to engagement in every sector working group and deliverable.

All across the plastics value chain we have worked hard this year to establish today’s reality, understand each others needs and discuss how we can overcome current barriers to meet the goal of 10MT of recycled plastics in European products by 2025.

10 November, saw the CPA publish our first deliverables with the Workplan on Design for Recycling, State of Play on Collection & Sorting and an R&D Agenda. You can review all the details here, on the European Commission’s website.

Or watch this new 2 minute video produced by the European Commission.

Of the 19 priority products identified in the workplan on design for recycling, 11 are polyolefins. Once again highlighting our critical role in the transition to circularity for plastics at large.

4 December saw the first General Assembly of the CPA with contributions from European Commissioners for industry and environment. There was a lot of recognition of the enormous effort put in by all actors despite the crisis. If you missed it you can watch the plenary session here. And you are still in time to take part in the following sessions during January:

1. 19 January, from 14:30 to 16:00, “the CPA meets the NGOs”, introduced by Carlo Pettinelli, director for chemicals and consumer industries at DG GROW

2. 20 January, from 10:00 to 13:00, “The Monitoring System of the CPA, implementation and next steps”, organised by the CPA Monitoring Working group

3. 26 January, from 14.00 to 16:00, “How digital platforms can help sell 10 million tonnes of quality recyclates in Europe” co-organised by Cirplus and Eurecat

4. 28 January, from 14:30 to 17:00, “Synergies between the CPA and the National Plastic Pact in Portugal”, organised by the Portuguese Ministry of the Economy, and introduced by Mr João Torres, Secretary of State of Consumer Protection, Ministry of the Economy, Portugal, and by Ms Inês Costa, Secretary of State for Environment.

Coming at the start of next year we’ll be finalizing the new monitoring system for plastics along with reports covering increasing recycled content, investment needs, improving collection & sorting and harnessing the untapped potential to reach the 10MT.

Take part - PCEP’s pilot of rPO pallets

In October the Working Group on Developing End Markets for rPO approved the proposal developed by our project team for a pilot to demonstrate the efficacy of pallets made from post-consumer polyolefins in a pooling system.

The project will run two pilots on the ground, one from suppliers to resin producers of CP3 size pallet and one between resin producers and converters of the CP7 size pallet. Establishing experience and confidence with a view to standardizing the PCR pallets to enable their pooling.

We are very excited to get started and PCEP members are welcome to take part in any of the following steps of the project. Take advantage of this great opportunity and confirm your involvement today!

1. Share your post-consumer recycled materials for use in the pallets

2. Technical testing of chosen test pallets on site via a virtual process FMEA

3. Participation in pilot pooling pallets between producer and converters

4. Participation in pilot pooling pallets between supplier and producers

5. Participation in peer review of LCA model

This is a great project, developing further an end market in transport logistics, contributing to our commitments by using post-consumer recycled polyolefins directly in our own industry and at the same time reducing the environmental footprint of our transport logistics. All in all these pallets are a great example of a resuable PO product that is both recyclable and entirely made of recycled content.

PCEP activities

Take part in any of our 6 working groups and the sub-teams within them, driving activity on issues such as principles for design with PO, characterizing recycled PO, designing resin for circularity, developing scientific evaluation for mechanically recycled PO in food contact materials, pilot projects for end markets and much more…

Keep up to date with all PCEP activities at the news page of our website, connect on LinkedIn or follow us on twitter.

You can update your preferences by clicking on the link below to select what information you would like to receive from PCEP. Please note working groups are only open to members, although you are welcome to join initially on a trial basis.