THE winners of the Plastics Recycling Awards Europe 2021 have been announced at the Plastics Recycling Show Europe in Amsterdam.
They are as follows:
- Automotive, Electrical or Electronic Product: Speed Home WLAN by Deutsche Telekom AG
- Building & Construction Product: Circular Green Rope by Plastix A/S
- Household & Leisure Product: HÅG Capisco Puls – auburn coloured made of recycled snow plough markers by Flokk
- Plastic Packaging Product: Labeless bottle, designed to be circular – 100% recyclable – 100% recycled plastic by SAEME for Danone Eaux France
- Product Technology Innovation: Recyclable PP trigger sprayer by Reckitt
- Plastics Recycling Ambassador: Flor Peña Herron, Avery Dennison
- Recycling Machinery Innovation (Joint winners): BritAS Recycling-Anlagen GmbH’s ABMF-PET-C & INTAREMA TVEplus RegrindPro + ReFresher by EREMA Engineering Recycling Maschinen und Anlagen Ges.m.b.H.
The Speed Home WLAN by Deutsche Telekom AG – which won the Automotive, Electrical or Electronic Product award – is made with almost 100% recycled content that comes from the WEEE (waste electrical & environmental equipment) stream.
The judges praised the appliance for being an ‘excellent’ example of the circular use of plastics into the same class of everyday objects, while maintaining the visual appeal of the exterior design.
Plastix’s Circular Green Rope, which scooped Building and Construction Product award, demonstrated that it is possible to successfully recycle fishing gear. Described as ‘genuinely innovative’ the cross-industry solution is being billed as a ‘key enabler’ of the trasition to the Circular New Plastics Economy and a ‘real’ business opportunity.
The HÅG Capisco Puls from Flokk made from recycled snow plough markers scooped the Household and Leisure Product award. Judges praised Flokk for its ‘relentless’ commitment towards sustainable and durable furniture. The chair features a seat and back shell made of 100% recycled post-consumer polypropylene.
Evian’s labeless bottle designed to be circular by SAEME for Danone Eaux France was described as ‘truly innovative’ as it bagged the Plastic Packaging Product award.
The Product Technology Innovation award went to Reckitt for its mono-material PP Trigger Sprayer, a ‘significant’ advance in design to improve the recyclability of this popular product. Trigger sprays often contain multiple materials that can include metal or glass, making them difficult to recycle. The judges commended Reckitt for reducing the weight of this component and by committing to moving from 22 variants of trigger sprayers to three and reducing the number of colour variations from 42 to six.
The Plastics Recycling Ambassador 2021 is Flor Peña Herron, Sustainability & Circular Economy Manager EMENA at Avery Dennison Label and Packaging Materials. The judges praised Flor for setting the course for converters, label producers, the packaging industry and the whole value chain in her commitment to work on improving plastic packaging recyclability and recycling in Europe. She leverages multiple platforms including Petcore and RecyClass, and her passion and motivation are delivering real change in making plastics circular.
Two entries in the Recycling Machinery Innovation category scored equal highest points from the judges, which led to the decision of a joint award. decided to make the award to both jointly.
Launched to the market in October of this year, Britas’s ABMF-PET-C (Automatic Belt Melt Filter) provides fully automated filtration of contaminants from plastic waste. It allows for the continuous processing of post-consumer waste without stopping production, making it ‘ideal’ for continuous processing and consistent pellet quality.
INTAREMA TVEplus RegrindPro + ReFresher by EREMA Erema applies the company’s existing and ‘very successful’ ReFresher technology for recycling food contact HDPE containers. The judges recongised its innovation as a step change in eliminating unwanted odour from waste plastics, allowing recyclate to replace virgin palstics in high end applications.
The winners each receive a trophy, with a 3D printed base made from 100% recycled ABS plastic car dashboards and the multi-colour top which is laser cut from compressed HDPE beach clean-up bottle caps.
Ton Emans, president of Plastics Recyclers Europe, commented, “This year’s winners are a true testament that a high percentage of recycled content can be used successfully for high-end, branded consumer goods in everyday use.
“Now in their fourth year, the awards as a whole show how well all plastic value chain actors are collaborating to improve recycling: everyone from major brands and material producers through to converters, label producers and manufacturers of shredding and extrusion machinery.”
Brennan Lafferty, vice president of Crain Communications, added, “Congratulations to all eight of our outstanding winners. These incredible projects and products prove our sector’s commitment to the recycling and reuse of plastics by design.
“They show us all that by working together we can make great things from recycled plastics and substantially increase the uptake of recyclates.”
