May 2019

The plastic scrap industry has experienced some difficult times of late. For example, the Indian government has banned all plastic scrap imports. As a result, another potential outlet for Europe’s unprocessed plastic scrap has been closed off, as a consequence of which more and more bales are available for purchase in Europe. In the meantime, the European Union has to deal with 25 million tons of plastic scrap per year, for most of which a convenient solution has yet to be found.

In Romania, several investments have been made in granulation lines. Hence, there is strong competition for finding good transparent LDPE/LLDPE bales. Moreover, the Chinese market has initiated a steep drop in purchase prices for the granulates, resulting in a considerable decline in margins.

There is still a high demand for PET and so local producers are importing it in large quantities.

The recycling of e-scrap plastics continues to be a major issue for which no improvement appears likely any time soon when also taking into account the Norwegian proposal for changing the Basel Convention.

Scrap transportation represents a serious challenge for Romanian recyclers as there are locations to which shipping companies refuse to carry their materials.

Andrei Mihai Sofian - Andrei Mihai Sofian (Romania)

Andrei Mihai Sofian

Rematholding CO. SRL. (ROU), Young Trader Representative to the BIR Plastics Committee


Country
Romania
Issue
May 2019