HELSINKI, June 5 (Xinhua) -- Practitioners of plastic recycling industries on Tuesday said that legislation and public pressure helps to boost recycling business.
At a panel discussion at the World Circular Economy Forum 2019 in Helsinki, Antti Vasara, CEO of VTT Technical Research Center of Finland, said "there has to be just enough legislation to make sure recycling is responsible."
Markku Hamalainen, CEO of the plastic free packaging maker Finnish Kotkamills, noted that public pressure and legislation are boosting the demand for plastic free packaging.
Hamalainen said the price of plastic free packaging materials are getting lower. It will not take too long to achieve the cost level of plastic coated boards.
Jiang Nanqing, Secretary General of China Plastics Reuse and Recycling Association (CPRRA), said that to be viable in the closed loop, the value of the waste must be increased.
Jiang briefed the panel on the recycling business in China, saying that a public fund system is being considered in China.
According to her, in this kind of system, income from selling package would not go back to manufacturer, but to a public fund that would reward consumers.
She said that a collector community already exists in China, and big companies have invested in Chinese plastic recycling enterprises.
China has a good infrastructure for waste management "as we closed the door to imported plastics in 2018, we started thinking how to separate plastic from other waste," she added.
During the panel discussion, Vasara also urged legislation to keep up with technological development and there needs to be "a minimum viable regulation" so that recycling can be a profitable business.
