ICIS Launches Much-needed Mixed Plastic Waste Pricing Service

LONDON, Nov. 24, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- With the demand for recycled plastic outstripping supply, ICIS, a global source of Independent Commodity Intelligence Services, has released a new weekly pricing service for Europe, offering benchmarkable price quotes for mixed polyolefin bales, PVC-screened reject bales suitable for RDF, and MRF reject bales.

The shortage in supply of monomaterial plastic waste to feed the mechanical recycling market has led to a spike in prices, with the cost of PET, PE and PP at least doubling in the last year and HDPE quadrupling. This has increased the relevance of mixed waste bales, which were previously economically unviable because of sorting costs and yield losses.

Additionally, mixed polyolefin waste bales are the main feedstock, and the largest variable cost for chemical recycling producers in Europe. To keep chemical recycling a complementary activity to mechanical processes, these producers are looking to other waste grades, specifically PVC-screened reject bales. Demand is also growing for unsorted reject bales from chemical recyclers and petrochemical firms with installed PVC sorting on site.

Louise Boddy, Head of Commercial Strategy, Sustainability at ICIS, said, "These mixed waste markets are becoming increasingly important to a circular plastics economy. The new pricing service will enable players throughout the chain to make better informed purchasing decisions and support further investment in the waste and chemical recycling sectors by providing much needed price transparency to those markets."

Market data on recycled plastics is currently fragmented and opaque. However, pricing data for this evolving industry is critical for all stakeholders, from chemical recyclers to FMCGs with public sustainability deadlines and chemical producers.

The mixed Plastic Waste – Europe pricing service will enable customers to understand when and how much to pay for mixed plastic waste bales. It will support chemical producers looking to invest in chemical recycling, with understanding of how pricing and the market is developing and how this might impact their sourcing strategy and overall costs.

Boddy concluded, "Having independent and regular prices for this industry will help customers make the best and most timely buying and selling decisions and enable FMCGs to understand how the feedstock costs are impacting the cost of their end-products. Mixed plastic waste pricing will provide vital transparency to this developing market."

Alongside benchmark pricing for mixed plastic bales the new European mixed plastic waste pricing service will enable ICIS to track chemical recycling developments, which will complement data from the ICIS chemical Recycling Supply Tracker, as well as the mechanical Recycling Supply Tracker launched in February 2021. Combined with existing pricing services for R-PE, R-PP and R-PET, the new mixed plastic waste pricing service gives ICIS unrivalled coverage across the recycled plastic chain, which provides a unique and much-needed perspective on the market, supporting both pricing and sourcing of supply.

About ICIS

ICIS is a trusted source of global commodity intelligence for the energy, chemical and fertilizer industry. We are a division of RELX, a FTSE 15 company with a market cap of £45 billion and an employee base of over 30,000 experts across 40 countries.

At ICIS, we help businesses make strategic decisions, mitigate risk, improve productivity and capitalise on new opportunities. We make some of the world's most important markets more trusted and predictable by providing data services, thought leadership and decision tools. As a result of our unmatched global presence, we can deliver targeted connected intelligence to influence thousands of decisions across supply chains every single day. We shape the world by connecting markets to optimise the world's valuable resources. With a global team of more than 600 experts, ICIS has employees based in London, New York, Houston, Karlsruhe, Milan, Mumbai, Singapore, Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Dubai, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Tokyo and Perth.

About RELX

RELX is a global provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries. The Group serves customers in more than 180 countries and has offices in about 40 countries. It employs approximately 30,000 people of whom almost half are in North America. RELX PLC is a London listed holding company which owns 52.9% of RELX Group. RELX NV is an Amsterdam listed holding company which owns 47.1% of RELX Group. The shares are traded on the London, Amsterdam and New York Stock Exchanges using the following ticker symbols: London: REL; Amsterdam: REN; New York: RELX and RENX. Total market capitalisation is approximately £45bn | €53.7bn | $60.2bn.