On an area of around 34,000 square meters, 480 companies from 23 nations presented themselves at the Plastimagen in Mexico City. The industrial show is considered the flagship fair of the plastics industry in Latin America. Among a total of 13 pavilions, eleven of them country-specific, Europe in particular was strongly represented.
The agreement is rightly called historic: Recently, the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) passed a resolution providing a global agreement to curb plastic waste. By the end of 2024, a legally binding convention is to regulate the entire life cycle of plastics. Bitterly necessary, after all, according to UN figures, around 400 million tons of plastic waste are generated worldwide every year, of which only about nine percent is recycled.
The primary production of one metric ton of polypropylene – the world’s second most widely used plastic – requires some 5.2 metric tons of raw materials and releases 1.7 metric tons of greenhouse gases. By contrast, the use of one metric ton of polypropylene from secondary raw materials, such as plastic waste, results in only around 225 kilograms of resource consumption and just under one metric ton of greenhouse gases.
Herbold Meckesheim GmbH obtained a new major order in December: it will supply a large-scale plant for plastic recycling to Fantastic Plastic. Fantastic Plastic is considered to be the producer of the highest quality PET flakes in Russia.
