10/02/2023
by Dr Lode Deprez – VP Technology Xeikon
Sustainability is a word that pops up in a lot of communications, marketing materials, company presentations and is dominant present in a lot of actual goals and targets.
We need to take care of the resources of the planet and reduce the amount of CO2 that is pushed into the air, resulting in a temperature increase and potential irreversible climate change.
With this in mind it means we will have to organize ourselves globally so we are capable of efficiently (re)use the materials available now on the surface of the earth.
Recycling is something we know already for a long time. In Europe the recycling rate is higher than 70 % which is quite good. Not all paper can be recollected within a short time period (book, tissue paper, toilet paper, compostable plant buckets, …), but newspapers, magazines, packaging material, mailings, … are very well efficiently collected and reworked into new paper or board materials. It is clear that for making new white paper deinking is mandatory.
The situation for plastic material is completely different and very much less focussed on recycling. Approximately 60-65 million tons of plastic was produced in Europe in 2020. In the same year 25 million ton was collected as waste (mainly packaging and household goods). Of this amount only 14 % was reused through chemical and mechanical recycling. The rest was lost irreversibly….
