European Commission considering adopting mass balance for recycled plastic content allocation – EU

Posted on September 23, 2024 by DrRossH in General

In a meeting happening today, an EU committee is discussing a draft document which adopts the mass balance fuel-exempt method for recycled content allocation in single-use plastic beverage bottles

Source: European Commission considering adopting mass balance for recycled plastic content allocation | Sustainable Plastics

In mass balance, a certified volume of renewable or recycled material is input across a production run but may not be evenly distributed across each individual product output. Using the mass balance method allows economic operators to state that they use a certain percentage of recycled or renewable material in their products, without having to prove that each individual product produced has that percentage of recycled or renewable material.

Given that pyrolysis oil is blended with virgin feedstocks in a cracker, and that the two feedstocks cannot be physically separated once co-fed, many argue that recognising mass balance is essential for allocating recycled content via this chemical recycling technology.