Finnish Plastics Recycling Ltd – Serving the Producer
A little over a month ago Finnish Plastics Recycling Ltd (FPR) was entered in the producer register as a packaging producer responsibility organization. Development work and actual operations regarding the collection and recycling of all packaging materials has now begun. We are also informing our customers, that is the producers, about the change. There are now two packaging producer responsibility organizations in Finland, and the producer can freely choose to which organization they want to transfer their packaging producer responsibility.
Approval by the authorities means a lot to us, as the alternative would have been a monopolistic structure. Open competition encourages continuous development and keeps costs as affordable as possible. Ultimately, all this will benefit the producers, as they get more comprehensive and better service as well as lower recycling fees. For this reason, it is the goal of Finnish Plastics Recycling to remain the most affordable packaging producer responsibility organization in Finland.
Collection and recycling rates of plastic packaging increased steadily in 2022
Finnish Plastics Recycling’s collection and recycling rates for plastic packaging in 2022 have been published. This was the first year when not all non-deposit plastic packaging were covered by the producer responsibility of Finnish Plastics Recycling. Nevertheless, the majority, that is 95,5% of all non-deposit plastic packaging was covered by the producer responsibility of FPR. Both the collection and recycling rates of plastic packaging increased evenly by a few percentage points. However, this increase is not enough in order to achieve a 50% recycling rate in 2025. We continue to ask consumers to sort their packaging carefully and according to the guidelines, and to take them to the collection points.
The recycling rate of plastic packaging for the whole of Finland is now calculated from the combined recycling results of two non-deposit and two deposit packaging producer organizations. Finnish Plastics Recycling does not know the results of other producer organizations in 2022, but based on the results of previous years, we estimate that the total recycling rate for plastic packaging in Finland in 2022 was approximately 33–35%. There is still some way to go to achieve the EU recycling target.
General meeting elects board of directors for the coming year
The annual general meeting of Finnish Plastics Recycling was held on 7 June 2023. The general meeting approved the financial statements and the annual report, and elected a new board of directors. With the exception of one board member the board of directors stays the same. Veli Ollila decided to step down, as he is moving to a different line of business in his new position. He is replaced by Ville Nurminen from Bewi RAW Ltd. On my behalf I would like to thank Veli for his distinguished work in the board during a year of many changes and wish him good luck in his new position. I would also like to welcome Ville to join us in developing packaging producer responsibility.