The European Plastics Recyclers association “EuPR” (www.plasticsrecyclers.eu) and its PET Working Group express their concern to react to the different price publications on RPET as their market function is not seen as a neutral guidance without the presence of an RPET standard.

As the use of RPET in its development is progressing very strong it still is in its infancy if we like to talk about standard quality references. Due to the nature of the different collection systems and collection quota in each country it creates different starting qualities of PET bottles. All the necessary process modifications to create a tailor made quality for the different customer requirements have been proven to be successful by the growth of the use of RPET. Even the growth of food grades is sustainable due to the controlled adaptations of the market players. The standard specifications of the different grades in the market are not yet ready to be printed on a limited RPET market price.

Many different qualities are currently used in the market. The current spread between to low end and high end qualities RPET, even within the different colours clear, blue, green, multicolour or brown, can be fix for the next year without any corrections.

A price publication can only be accepted by the market if its function is positioned in a standardised quality definition. EuPR Working group is strongly committed to lead this standardisation of the definitions but references like ISO take time to be implemented. Food or non-food, Flake or Pellet, clear or coloured, spot or contract, many variables are needed to structured RPET standards in time. Until then EuPR would like to focus on preparing the RPET standard definitions with its customer requirements without being confronted with price publications and no standards references.

EuPR and specifically its PET Working Group are active in channelling information in co-operation with industry in order to create sustainable applications.