Economic meltdown threatens Europe's war on plastic
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Sunday
February 05, 2023

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 05, 2023
Economic meltdown threatens Europe's war on plastic

World+Biz

Reuters
07 August, 2020, 03:45 pm
Last modified: 07 August, 2020, 04:05 pm

Related News

  • If Turkey blocks Sweden and Finland, will NATO boot Turkey?
  • Europeans dial down the heating, heed calls to save energy
  • EU plans changes to pharmaceuticals law to avoid medicine shortages
  • Davos 2023: EU to counter US climate game changer with own green deal
  • EU should put Twitter under direct supervision after missteps: German official

Economic meltdown threatens Europe's war on plastic

As lockdowns were put in place worldwide, a drop in demand for oil pushed prices to historic lows, making virgin plastics - already becoming cheaper than the recycled equivalent - even more affordable

Reuters
07 August, 2020, 03:45 pm
Last modified: 07 August, 2020, 04:05 pm
FILE PHOTO: Separate cans are seen at Amarsul plant in Seixal, Portugal July 7, 2020. REUTERS/Rafael Marchante
FILE PHOTO: Separate cans are seen at Amarsul plant in Seixal, Portugal July 7, 2020. REUTERS/Rafael Marchante

Giving a new life to plastic trash gets Carlos Bento out of bed every morning. But the coronavirus pandemic has seen revenues drop up to 40 percent at Micronipol, the large recycling facility he runs in central Portugal, and it faces an uncertain future.

Micronipol produces recycled polyethylene, the base for plastic bags and bottles. The product is piling up at its warehouses as clients, facing their own economic struggles, shelve their recycling goals. They are opting for cheaper alternatives: non-recycled plastics made from hydrocarbons.

As lockdowns were put in place worldwide, a drop in demand for oil pushed prices to historic lows, making virgin plastics - already becoming cheaper than the recycled equivalent - even more affordable.

"If we are no longer competitive and if we lose cash we have two options: either someone has to subsidise us so we can keep working or we have to shut down," said Bento, as he stood near a pile of colourful recycled plastic bales.

Lower virgin plastic prices could spell disaster for the future of European recyclers like Micronipol.

In Europe, virgin polyethylene terephthalate (PET) was over 7 percent, or 60 euros ($71) per tonne, cheaper than the recycled equivalent last month, data from S&P Global Platts showed.

Industry group Plastic Recyclers Europe said firms in most European Union member states have signalled their recycling facilities have drastically reduced their operations and, in many cases, closed their lines for at least a few months.

"Without well-functioning and profitable plastics recycling there is no alternative, no environmentally sound option for plastic waste management," said Antonino Furfari, the group's managing director. "This waste will be incinerated or dumped."

VIRGIN PLASTICS TAX?

Piotr Barczak, senior policy officer for waste at the European Environment Bureau, called for a tax to be slapped on all virgin plastics to eliminate the price gap.

The impact of the pandemic on recyclers is especially concerning at a time when consumption of plastics is expected to double to 600 million tonnes per year in the coming two decades, according to a report by Zero Waste Europe NGO.

And as countries struggle to cope with the economic impact of the health crisis, fears abound that environmental policies are being left behind.

EU Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius told Reuters in a written interview that while the Commission had received relatively few requests for extensions or exemptions from EU environmental rules due to the pandemic, the crisis had a "significant impact" on countries' administrative capacities.

The EU is to ban a range of single-use plastic items by 2021, a huge ambition which could now be under threat as more and more consumers and restaurants become more dependent on disposable plastic products due to contagion fears.

Portugal's Environment Secretary of State Ines dos Santos Costa said her government's ambition to cut disposable plastic products "still stands" but the pandemic has transformed models of production and consumption worldwide.

Not far from Portugal's capital Lisbon, recycling sorting facility Amarsul has raised concerns about the vast amounts of plastic gloves and masks it has been receiving.

"If the ongoing habit of using disposables continues, we may take a step back we will have to fix later," said chief executive Sandra Silva, adding that a recycling-based economic model "cannot stop because there is a pandemic."

'ACT NOW'

Europe generates around 26 million tonnes of plastic waste annually, but less than 30 percent of that is collected for recycling. Experts say existing targets to improve plastic recycling could be in danger of not being met.

Sandra Castro, head of Extruplas firm that makes wooden-like outdoor furniture from plastics it recycles, is hoping the current situation is no more than a temporary bump in the road.

"We need the industry to be able to provide a solution to the waste we produce," Castro said.

But for Sirpa Pietikainen, Finnish member of the European Parliament, the only way to tackle plastic pollution, which some scientists say is fuelling climate change through greenhouse gas emissions, is to produce less waste.

"If you thought the coronavirus crisis was bad for the economy, climate change will be 100 times worse - and then you will not only talk about losing GDP points, you will talk about access to medication, water and food," she said.

"We really need to act now."

Environment

Europe / Plastic Waste

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • ICB to withdraw Padma Bank investment as return eludes
    ICB to withdraw Padma Bank investment as return eludes
  • Some tough tasks on the plate for Bangladesh Bank!
    Some tough tasks on the plate for Bangladesh Bank!
  • Influentials thwart Bangladesh's reform attempts: Economists
    Influentials thwart Bangladesh's reform attempts: Economists

MOST VIEWED

  • Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi and Foreign Ministers of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), including East Timor's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Adaljiza Magno prepare to pose for group photos during the 32nd ASEAN Coordinating Council (ACC) meeting at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta, Indonesia, February 3, 2023. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan
    ASEAN chair Indonesia to intensify talks on code for South China Sea
  • Photo: Collected
    Google invests almost $400M in ChatGPT rival Anthropic
  • FILE PHOTO: Crude oil tanker Advantage Angel sails in the Bosphorus, on its way to the Mediterranean Sea, in Istanbul, Turkey December 12, 2022. REUTERS/Yoruk Isik
    US warns Turkey on exports seen to boost Russia's war
  • FILE PHOTO: Brazilian aircraft carrier Sao Paulo is seen in this handout picture, June 7, 2011. Brazilian Navy/Handout via REUTERS
    Brazil sinks rusting old aircraft carrier in Atlantic despite pollution risk
  • Israeli forces kill unarmed Palestinian man in occupied West Bank
    Israeli forces kill unarmed Palestinian man in occupied West Bank
  • Photo: Collected
    Indian ministry reviews Adani Group financial statements

Related News

  • If Turkey blocks Sweden and Finland, will NATO boot Turkey?
  • Europeans dial down the heating, heed calls to save energy
  • EU plans changes to pharmaceuticals law to avoid medicine shortages
  • Davos 2023: EU to counter US climate game changer with own green deal
  • EU should put Twitter under direct supervision after missteps: German official

Features

Sketch: TBS

Say 'Salud' before your salad main course

22h | Food
Coots running. Photo: Enam Ul Haque

Cute Coot of Baikka Beel: 'And yet he was as bald as a coot'

16h | Panorama
With only one government run specialised cancer hospital in the capital — the National Institute Of Cancer Research and Hospital (NICRH) in Mohakhali — patients have no option but to resort to private hospitals. Photo: Noor A Alam.

Cancer care: Medical treatment and beyond

23h | Panorama
Andy Mukherjee. Sketch: TBS

What makes India's billionaires' support special for Adani

1d | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

Prioritise medical equipment, raw material imports over luxury items

Prioritise medical equipment, raw material imports over luxury items

13h | TBS Round Table
Adani row rocks India’s parliament

Adani row rocks India’s parliament

13h | TBS World
Concord launches new plant to produce environment friendly bricks

Concord launches new plant to produce environment friendly bricks

18h | TBS Stories
How Asif Khan would invest his fresh funds right now

How Asif Khan would invest his fresh funds right now

19h | TBS Markets

Most Read

1
Leepu realised his love for cars from a young age and for the last 40 years, he has transformed, designed and customised hundreds of cars. Photo: Collected
Panorama

'I am not crazy about cars anymore': Nizamuddin Awlia Leepu

2
Photo: Collected
Energy

8 Ctg power plants out of production

3
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) logo is seen outside the headquarters building in Washington, U.S., September 4, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas/File Photo
Economy

IMF approves $4.7 billion loan for Bangladesh, calls for ambitious reforms

4
Fund cut as Dhaka's fast-track transit projects on slow spending lane
Infrastructure

Fund cut as Dhaka's fast-track transit projects on slow spending lane

5
Photo: Collected
Court

Japanese mother gets guardianship of daughters, free to leave country

6
Belal Ahmed new acting chairman of SIBL
Banking

Belal Ahmed new acting chairman of SIBL

EMAIL US
[email protected]
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2023
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - [email protected]

For advertisement- [email protected]