THE KEYS TO WASTE MANAGEMENT IN 2023

THE KEYS TO WASTE MANAGEMENT IN 2023

“The recycling sector has clear reasons to feel optimistic in this 2023” could be the phrase that defines the beginning of this new year.

At a time when most industries are navigating uncertainty, the recycling sector is shoring up its pillars and, thanks to technological innovation, is preparing for a record year. But why this optimism? This is what waste management will look like in 2023: changes in regulations, material-specific markets, and cutting-edge technologies.

RECYCLING REGULATIONS AND FIGURES

All forecasts suggest that the sector will continue to grow at a rate of 4.8% per year in the coming years as awareness of the environmental impact of waste increases. In 2021, and waiting to confirm the data for this 2022, the sector had a global turnover of about 58 billion dollars. With the clear objective of reaching circularity in 2050, it is estimated that the turnover of the sector will be about 90 billion dollars in 2028.

At PICVISA we are witnesses and participants in this trend, and we close a 2022 with the record in trade volumes in our 20 years of history. But we are not the only ones, if we delve into Europe, one of the leading territories of the sector, the latest Eurostat data show that in the European Union some 2,029 million tons of waste are treated annually. The sector, which employs some 350,000 people and is in full transition towards a circular economy and climate neutrality, is one of the few that grows and invests in new industrial facilities, encouraged by new regulations, both European and local, and by the growing commitment of society to reducing the ecological footprint and investing in decarbonization.

For 2023, two key regulations for the sector remain on the table, the revision of the European Regulation on Shipments of Waste and the Regulation on Packaging and Packaging Waste.

Of course, not everything will be a primrose patch, the recycling sector will have to face numerous challenges during 2023: higher energy prices, fluctuations in the prices of secondary raw materials, the war between Russia and Ukraine, tensions in the market, inflation … But, for the time being, despite these challenges, the demand for recycling solutions continues to increase.

RECYCLING BY MATERIALS

There are three types of materials that stand out above the others in terms of forecasts for this new year: plastics, glass and textiles.

Glasses: although the glass recycling sector is a real success story in the European Union, where PICVISA is a leader in countries such as Portugal and Spain and disembarks in others such as Romania, the commitment to technology to have a more environmentally sustainable and energy-efficient growth extends globally. At PICVISA we know the potential of this sector in the international arena and that is why we have landed with our technological solutions in countries such as Mexico, Guatemala and Brazil with different projects, including a treatment plant that will process 20,000 tons of waste per year.

Plastics: There are two key aspects to plastic recycling. The first is the generalization of public-private partnerships. Within this framework, PICVISA has been part of a reference project at European level, a collaboration between the Generalitat Valenciana and the multinational Nestlé for the recovery and recycling of plastic containers, mainly coffee capsules. Key here is the installation of a PICVISA ECOPICK that, thanks to artificial intelligence, allows to separate and classify plastic waste that can be recycled and converted into a new resource. The second key aspect is the identification of territories with great potential, where PICVISA points out two in which it already works: Brazil and Turkey. Brazil is the fourth country in the world that produces the most plastic waste (11.3 million tons per year) and the one that recycles it the least (23%). The potential of its recycling market is therefore enormous. Turkey, on the other hand, is a rara avis of the sector, a power importer of plastic waste that in 2021 bought more than 700,000 tons of plastic (more than half of the European Union). However, in Turkey, there is hardly any separate collection and its waste management system is in its infancy, with small and poorly mechanized treatment plants.

Textiles: the textile waste recycling sector also has a key date on the calendar, the year 2025, and a territory, the European Union. It will be then when all the member states will have to recycle 100% of their textile waste, about 16 million tons per year. To lead this task, PICVISA has been at the forefront of the sector in 2022, thanks to intelligence and artificial vision, it has developed projects such as the Coleo Recycling plant (A Coruña), to which we must add the construction of a new fabric classification plant in Catalonia , which will manage about 10,000 tons per year; as well as new projects with a focus on northern European countries.

THE VANGUARD OF THE RECYCLING SECTOR

As we have mentioned in our last posts, both the future of waste management and Industry 5.0 professionals have something in common: data. Traceability, tailor-made services, flow analysis and, ultimately, the customization of technological solutions will undoubtedly be the backbone of this 2023, if not more.

At PICVISA we work the data from our BRAIN area, where we develop analysis services of your process, your product, your flow and your objectives to prepare a customized study. This is how we implement customized technologies on demand that, far from finding their end at this point, continue to be shaped and improved thanks to our AFTER-SALES team.

This is where the key to success at PICVISA lies: we develop the most innovative technological solutions with the best human team to promote them. So, answering the question at the beginning, yes, we have reason to be optimistic.