The move anticipates the European Union’s upcoming update of the Aerosol Dispenser Directive in 2020. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Petcore Europe, a PET value chain organisation based in Brussels, has launched an aerosol recycling taskforce named Plastic Aerosol Recycling Special Industry Group (SiG), as it expects an increase in the amount of plastic aerosol containers on the market.

The company said it created the group as the European Union will update its Aerosol Dispenser Directive (ADD) in 2020, which will potentially allow the sale and purchase of plastic aerosols beyond 220ml.

The move would mean that the recycling volume of PET products from the packaging waste stream will increase, prompting collecting and recycling companies to adapt.

Petcore Europe chairman Johannes Burghaus said: “Currently, the capacity is restricted due to the fact that the ADD was written in a time when only brittle plastics were available. This led to the approach to treat plastics the same way as coated glass containers.”

“With PET we have today an ideal plastics aerosol material at hand. That is why FEA, the European Aerosol Federation, started an approach to change the ADD and allow plastics aerosols beyond 22cl capacity in 2008.”

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This change in regulations will trigger a rise in demands for plastic aerosols, which will eventually lead to a higher amount of waste aerosol packaging in the collection and recycling systems.

“In line with the new European Plastic Waste Strategy, we need to enable a smooth entry of new plastics aerosol packages to the PET recycling stream”, said Christian Crepet, Petcore Europe’s executive director of the SiG objective.

“Design guidelines as well as suitable collection, sorting and recycling processes are needed in order to recycle plastics aerosol packages properly. Via this full value chain collaboration it is intended to make plastics aerosol packages fully recyclable in standard PET containers.”