Digitisation : RecoTrace™ helps monitoring plastic recycling

PolyREC®, the association that monitors, verifies and reports on European recycled plastics, is now recognised as an official data collector for the Circular Plastics Alliance (CPA). Thanks to RecoTrace™ data, PolyREC® will report on the progress of the entire European plastics value chain towards the CPA target of 10 Mt recycled plastics use by 2025.

Ton Emans, President at Plastics Recyclers Europe, says on behalf of PolyREC®, "PolyREC® is calling on all plastic recyclers and converters to register their recycled plastic data into RecoTrace™ and, in doing so, ensure transparency of the circular movement of European polymers. Understanding the size and dynamics of the European recycled plastics market will help inform future legislation and investment decisions that accelerate the transition to a circular economy.”

Fully CPA compliant, RecoTrace™ is the first comprehensive data system to monitor both plastic recycling volumes and recycled plastic use for all main polymers. The tool provides recyclers and converters with a free-to-use online platform to track progress against individual pledges to produce or use recycled content and helping to demonstrate commitment towards circularity.

Building on Recovinyl®’s 20+ years of data collection experience and expertise, RecoTrace™ inherits a proven track record and credibility in data monitoring. The system has now been expanded to include all main polymers: polyolefin (PO), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polystyrene (PS) and expanded polystyrene (EPS), extruded polystyrene (XPS), polyamide (PA), acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and polycarbonate (PC).

PolyREC® members have worked collaboratively to align all definitions and methodology used within RecoTrace™ to ensure comparability of data.