As oil resources get increasingly scarce and landfills saturated with PET waste the pressure to change the plastic manufacturing industry behaviour is getting stronger. Society, as well as the authorities, unfold the challenges for the plastics industry. Bottles marketed in the EU will have to contain at least 25% of recycled plastic by 2025 and at least 30% by 2030. This European law will boost up the demand for recycled PET.
Nowadays, the use of recycled PET in Europe is so profitable (for costs reduction reasons but also marketing purposes) that many recycling companies have difficulties in finding PET bottles wastes to feed their plants. These PET wastes are often sold on the auctions as a result of high demand. This situation of the shortage of PET wastes in EU will, for sure last for a more extended period of time. Considered that PET waste is a scarce resource in the EU, Découvertes comes with the idea to create recycling plants in regions where the consumption of PET bottles is still booming. In contrast, the demand for recycled PET is at zero and PET wastes are left with no use.
Thanks to its long term activity in Western and Central Africa, Découvertes is aspiring/willing to install the first big-scale PET to flake recycling plant in this area.
There the challenges are different; the collection of bottles is the primary difficulty of our projects. That is why we are currently collaborating with big players in waste management such as Hysacam, the Cameroonian national company managing wastes of 19 cities in 4 countries.
From the collect issue to the sales of recycled PET and thanks to mature technology, Découvertes and its partners bring a complete profitable business model.