Tray Circularity Evaluation Platform (TCEP)

How to keep a sustainable PET recycling industry in Europe

PET is the polymer champion in circularity and PET trays are already great performers in terms of use of recyclates; 

About PET market in Europe

• PET is the most recycled plastic packaging material in Europe.
• 5MT of PET has been placed in EU27+ 3 market in 2022
• Packaging accounted for over 97% of the 5 million tonnes of PET products placed on the market in 2022. The vast majority were bottles, at about 3.4 million tonnes, followed by sheet (trays) (circa 1 million tonnes) and films (370,000 tonnes)
• Trays represent the 21% of total PET use in the market
• Approximately 30% of trays were collected and sorted for recycling across Europe
• The estimated of recycled content in the bottles is 44% in 2022
• The tray recycling capacity is 57,000 MT/year and is expected to reach over 300,000 MT/year by 2025
• Source: ICIS report (Petcore_NMWE_UNESDA_PRE), PET MARKET IN EUROPE, STATE OF PLAY, 2022, 
• For more details you may visit   https://www.petcore-europe.org/images/pet/PET_report_V3.pdf 

The Tray Circularity Evaluation Platform (TCEP) created by PETCORE Europe, supported by tray manufacturers, the European Association of Plastic Recycling and Recovery Organizations (EPRO) and Plastics Recyclers Europe (PRE).

The mission of the platform is to give support to the value chain of thermoformed PET trays to improve recyclability of thermoforms and strive to circularity.

The Platform consists of technical experts in the field of PET thermoforms design, production and recycling, whose only objective is the evaluation of existing technologies and innovation and providing an independent and confidential assessment of their impact on the PET recycling processes across Europe.

The Tray Platform has established DESIGN GUIDELINES and several test procedures in order to assess the impact on recycling of new packaging technologies. Products that pass the tests should not cause any problems during recycling.

The Tray Platform is issuing also TECHNICAL OPINIONS on new packaging solutions that have been positively assessed by the TCEP technical expert’s panel. Innovations that have been positively assessed should not cause any problems during recycling, assuming that the set conditions are met.

Please find right here the SECRECY AGREEMENT and the APPLICATION FORM  to apply for assessment of your innovative packaging or packaging solution as well as the MODUS OPERANDI detailing how the platform operates to give technical opinions.