The Portuguese Pact for Plastics assumes itself as a collaborative initiative that aims to lead by example and serve as inspiration in the movement of transition from plastics to a circular economy.

AVE is part of the group of founding members of the Portuguese Pact for Plastics, launched this Tuesday, February 4th, at the EDP Headquarters Auditorium in Lisbon.

The Portuguese Pact for Plastics is coordinated by the Smart Waste Portugal Association, with the support of the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Action; Ministry of Economy and Digital Transition; and Ministry of the Sea, and is part of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Pact for Plastics Network.

It is a collaborative and innovative platform, united by a common vision of a circular economy for plastics in Portugal, where they never will turn into waste.

This shared commitment joins the government, different plastics value chain agents, the Academy and NGOs, a total of 50 organizations around a set of goals and ambitious targets for 2025:

• Define, by 2020, a list of single-use plastics considered problematic or unnecessary and define measures for their elimination;
• Ensure that 100% of plastic packaging is reusable, recyclable or compostable;
• Ensure that 70% or more of the plastic packaging is effectively recycled, by increasing the collection and recycling;
• Incorporate, on average, 30% recycled plastic in new plastic packaging;
• Promote consumer awareness and education activities (current and future) for circular use of plastics.

Luís Realista, Administrator of AVE, focus the importance of collaboration so that a circular economy for plastics becomes a reality and the contribution of AVE to this process. “None of the signatory entities could respond to this great challenge alone, but together – those who produce, those who transport, those who distribute, those who consume, those who value and also those who legislate, those who study , those who investigate, those who supervise – we have all the conditions”

AVE and the New Plastic Economy

As service providers of energy recovery and material recovery using coprocessing, AVE has always been and reaffirms its position at the end of the value chain of this so noble and useful resource, which over time has evolved and its use has become commonplace to the extent that the extent of its use is considered harmful.

Being at the service of packaging recycling entities, namely the rejected fractions of the industrial recycling activity, AVE states that this fraction will be its main focus and that it will dispense with the recyclable fraction of plastic, motivating those responsible in the value chain to its noblest use as recyclable material.

Energy recovery and material incorporation in the clinker matrix has been a process for over 13 years that has led to accumulating more than 100 thousand tons of refuse and rejected fractions of plastic particles from composite material packaging (plastic mixed with aluminum paint), labels and other fractions that are part of the plastic packaging.

AVE’s contribution to the theme also extends to research, methods and processes, with a view to recovering non-recyclable fractions from plastics at the end of industrial recycling activities, of which the following stand out:

• The need to eliminate plastics with persistent organic polluting POPs according to the new European regulation https://euricando/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32019R1021&from=en https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/PT/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32019R1021&from=en
• AVE will be part of the solution foreseen in the action plan that the Portuguese Environment Agency will present until 06/30/2020, in order to guarantee the separation and elimination of the plastic fraction obtained in the vehicle dismantling activity in End of Life and Electrical and Electronic Equipment. The mandatory separation of plastics with POP’s and their forwarding for thermal elimination taking into account their harmful chemical composition, namely due to the risk of direct exposure to human oral contact, when reincorporated in the production of new products.
• These plastics are distinguishable due to their chemical composition and their use has been banned since 2008.
• The European challenge of removing these materials from the recycling chain leads to a continuous work of traceability in the act of separation and sorting during the process of dismantling and subsequent thermal elimination. Thus, it is desirable in the near future that AVE collaborates with the different actors in the activity of dismantling this waste stream, particularly with its management entities, from Portugal and other European countries, which is already taking place.