The first Plastics Recycling Awards Europe honored people and products advancing plastics recycling.

Plastic Recyclers Europe Awards

Pictured (l-r): Antonino Furfari of Plastics Recyclers Europe (PRE), Markus Helftewes of DSD, Immo Sander of Werner & Mertz, Peter Claes and Paul Baeyens of DS Smith; Orkun Kaymakci and Hakan Özkan of Arçelik, Willemijn Peeters of Searious Business, Carl Stonley and Uwe Obermann of Mondi and Brennan Lafferty of Crain at the awards ceremony held during Plastics Recycling Show Europe

Announced at the Plastics Recycling Show Europe in Amsterdam, the five winners were as follows:

  • Plastics Recycling Ambassador of the Year: Willemijn Peeters, founder of Netherlands-based Searious Business
  • Building & Construction Product: Beaulex stormwater buffer products from Illinois-headquartered DS Smith Plastics
  • Recycled Plastic Consumer Lifestyle Product of the Year: The Grundig vacuum cleaner made with recycled plastics sourced from electronics and appliances, by Turkish household appliance company Arçelik
  • Recycled Plastic Packaging Product: The recycled Systalen PRIMUS HDPE bottle from Der Grüne Punkt of Germany.
  • Technology Innovation in Plastics Recycling: BarrierPack Recyclable, a functional and recyclable PE-based laminate developed by Austrian paper and packaging company Mondi.

“The Plastics Recycling Awards Europe winners have each successfully demonstrated how passion, innovation, ingenuity and determination can achieve practical, commercial and successful advances in plastics recycling,” Ton Emans, awards judge and president of Plastics Recyclers Europe (PRE), stated in a press release. “The very high standard and number of entries we received for each category is testament to the growing range of consumer and industrial applications in which recycled plastics and recycling technology are being used. They are making a huge contribution towards conserving resources, reducing CO2 and sustaining the circular economy.”

The winners received trophies made of 3D-printed recycled ABS from car dashboards and compressed HDPE from bottle caps collected on beaches. The Plastics Recycling Show Europe is organised by Crain Communications and Plastics Recyclers Europe (PRE).

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