国际品牌推动中国回收包装需求
近年来，再生塑料市场正由传统的低价替代向环保减碳等方面推动的高品质回收与再利用转变。阿格斯就大家比较关心的几个问题在由拾柴环境主办的第二届硬塑回收峰会前对国龙环保董事长郭家万和拾柴的创始人王韧进行了访谈：
- 中国再生塑料出口前景
- 再生塑料的食品接触应用
- 欧盟一次性塑料指令中的“镜像条款”等
您认为出口市场对您的产品有多少需求（以及针对哪些产品 - rPET、rHDPE、 rPP? 包装等级？ ) ...主要出口市场是什么？
国龙郭家万：再生塑料市场应用主要是国际品牌客户的需求，大品牌企业对环保再生产品的使用，是主动履行社会责任，通过企业的行动推动废旧塑料的回收利用。在中国市场上 国际品牌企业在这两年来一直在测试，小批量试用再生塑料，在东南亚港澳市场上开始投送再生塑料包装产品，也有很多国际品牌企业生产基地在中国，他们的出口产品基本开始使用再生塑料，在日化领域是以rHDPE、rPP为主，在食品包装上是以rPET为主而且都是需要达到食品级要求，并需要取得FDA、EFSA认证！
大多数参与者都在关注回收的食品接触材料，但中国目前不允许在食品接触应用中使用回收材料。在这种情况下，中国回收商应如何发展业务?热解是否是中国回收商的合适途径?
拾柴环境王韧：目前，中国PET回收企业的高价值产品应用主要方向是纺织纤维，工业丝和其他非食品级应用，食品级rPET产品也可以满足一些个人护理产品的特殊需求，其他食品级rPET供应还包括出口中国香港和海外市场。
热裂解在中国还在探索阶段，今年国内宣布了几个商业化项目的建设，但其运行仍有待时日，仍需市场验证。今年8月27-28日我们在上海会有一个国际硬质聚烯烃回收峰会，其中就有化学回收和热解的相关议题，大家有兴趣的可以关注参与。
欧盟正在考虑在《一次性塑料指令》中加入“镜像条款”。这意味着，欧盟外的回收商向欧盟出口材料并希望这些材料计入欧盟再生含量目标时,将被要求达到与欧洲回收商相同的原料、工艺和环境标准。你预计这一政策会如何发展?你认为这会对你的业务产生什么影响?
国龙郭家万：对于国龙再生塑料来说是没有难度的，因为国龙再生的工艺技术，生产设备，环境标准都是与欧洲相同的，也是使用消费后PCR原料，这几年来，我们经过了二十多家国际品牌公司对产品的检测，验厂，生产环境等各项要求测试，安全达到他们的要求，镜像条款对于国龙再生来说是可以做到的。但对于中国很多再生企业恐怕一定的限制。如果欧盟推动这个政策，也许会通过验厂验证“一企一策”的认证许可。
作为国内回收行业的领先企业，国龙未来的发展目标是什么，近期是否有计划投资化学法回收领域?
国龙郭家万：国龙再生经过十年的发展，现在已经建立了相当大的产能，为一系列不同的用途生产回收材料(见表)。我们成功实施了涵盖食品级和工业级产品的全产业链商业模式。
| Recycling type | Capacity (t/yr) |
| Food-grade rPET | 60,000 |
| Food-grade rHDPE | 20,000 |
| Food-grade rPP | 20,000 |
| Pipe grade recyclates | 80,000 |
| Industrial grade rHDPE | 20,000 |
您是否预计在不久的将来中国食品包装市场将开始发展再生材料市场(即法规变化)?您预计中国还会出现哪些法规变化来支持回收行业?
拾柴环境王韧：中国正在研究包装应用再生材料的安全性，这不仅仅包括再生塑料，还包括再生金属，比如易拉罐是否可以使用再生铝。本地市场也在等待相关的文件出台。
目前，国家已经出台以旧换新政策，反向发票开票政策等等，都对回收行业扩大起到促进作用，相信在垃圾分类领域，可能将是后期政府政策出台的方向。当然，建立完整的回收体系需要更多实施战略，以及更多时间来摸索发展路径和进行建设。
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Malaysian biodiesel group urges faster B20 rollout
Malaysian biodiesel group urges faster B20 rollout
Singapore, 7 April (Argus) — The Malaysian Biodiesel Association (MBA) has urged the government to speed up the nationwide rollout of biodiesel-fossil diesel blends of up to 20pc (B20) to strengthen energy security, it said today. The MBA called for immediate implementation of higher blending levels between B10 and B20 in areas where infrastructure can support it. It acknowledged that progress towards higher blends has been limited by infrastructure readiness but sought further government support to enable a nationwide B30 blend. To encourage biodiesel use outside the national blending programme, the MBA also asked the government to exempt a 10pc sales tax on biodiesel. The national biodiesel programme, combined with voluntary biodiesel use, would enhance energy security, cut greenhouse gas emissions, generate foreign exchange savings, reduce exposure to global oil price shocks and improve fiscal resilience while supporting domestic palm oil and rural livelihoods, the MBA said. Malaysia launched the B20 biodiesel programme for the transport sector in February 2020, but implementation has been limited to Langkawi, Kedah, Labuan and Sarawak. B7 remains the applied blend in the industrial sector without a nationwide rollout, the MBA said. Neighbouring countries have also announced or are considering higher biodiesel blending levels because of energy security concerns due to the war in the Middle East. Indonesia last week announced it will implement a B50 blending mandate from 1 July while Thailand adjusted the biodiesel content from B5 to B7 in March and has announced restrictions on crude palm oil exports from 7 April . By Malcolm Goh Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2026. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Israel hits Iran's Assaluyeh petchem complex
Israel hits Iran's Assaluyeh petchem complex
Dubai, 6 April (Argus) — Several facilities in Iran's key Pars petrochemical complex in Assaluyeh were damaged in US-Israeli strikes Monday, according to Iran's state petrochemicals company NPC. NPC did not name the facilities struck, just saying that the "criminal attacks" were on "a number of ancillary facilities linked to the petrochemical complex of the Pars Special Economic Energy Zone," and that damage assessments are still underway. But state media said two power and desalination plants, Jam and Damavand, which supply electricity and water to the complex, were targeted, causing widespread power disruptions across the complex. Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said today that Tel Aviv had carried out a "powerful strike on the largest petrochemical facility in Iran" in Assaluyeh, that he said was responsible for about half of the country's petrochemical production. He described the attack as a"severe economic blow to the Iranian regime." The complex hosts at least 21 operating petrochemical plants and takes feedstock from the giant offshore South Pars gas field that Iran shares with Qatar. South Pars accounts for 70-75pc of Iran's gas production and supplies a significant share of feedstock to the country's petrochemical and gasoline sectors. At least four gas treatment plants in Assaluyeh, which process sour gas from South Pars, were taken offline on 18 March following a similar Israeli drone attack . The incident prompted Iranian retaliatory strikes on downstream energy facilities in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar, including the LNG facility in Ras Laffan Industrial City . US president Donald Trump later said Israel would not target South Pars again unless Iran attacked Qatar . The attack was just the latest in a string of US-Israeli strikes targeting Iran's petrochemicals industry. Another petrochemical complex in Marvdasht, Fars province, was also targeted on Monday, causing fire which was later contained, while a key petrochemical complex in Mahshahr, in Khuzestan province, was struck on Saturday, shutting down production across the hub. Iranian state media said the Fajr 1, Fajr 2, Karun, Razi and Bandar Imam petrochemical companies were damaged in the strikes. These attacks came as Trump reiterated over the weekend his threat to strike Iran's electric power infrastructure if Tehran does not allow unfettered passage through the strait of Hormuz . Both Trump and Iran rejected the latest proposal for a ceasefire floated by Pakistan. By Rithika Krishna and Nader Itayim Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2026. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Q&A: Neste on circular feedstocks, mass balance
Q&A: Neste on circular feedstocks, mass balance
London, 2 April (Argus) — Finnish refiner Neste recently commissioned a 150,000t/yr upgrading facility for liquefied plastic waste, including plastic-derived pyrolysis oil, in Porvoo, Finland, to supply recycled plastic-based feedstocks to the petrochemicals market. Neste's director of polymers and chemicals Maiju Helin spoke to Argus about expectations for the market, their views on EU mass balance rules, and hopes for bio-based content targets for plastic packaging. What are your current experiences and future expectations for the demand for plastic pyrolysis oil and circular feedstocks in Europe? The market is gradually on a growth trajectory, but developing slower than we expected. We see there will be demand when the regulation kicks in, but now we are between the adoption of the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) and recycled content targets coming into force so it's really not affecting the market as heavily as we would have wanted to see. Other aspects such as high energy costs, the competitive pressure towards the European petrochemical industry coming from outside of Europe, delays that we see in chemical recycling plans and geopolitical uncertainties have slowed the development of the market. Nevertheless, we now have the world's largest upgrading capacity and are ready to grow with the market and ramp up as supply/demand develops. The upgrader has an input capacity of 150,000 t/yr, significantly more pyrolysis oil capacity than is available in the European market — how quickly do you anticipate being able to fill this? I can't comment on our current state of operation. But you are absolutely right that today we will not be able to run this unit at full capacity. We hope to as soon as possible, but we need to see how quickly the market develops and how the supply pool develops. And then, we are there to do this together with our suppliers and customers at scale. What is Neste's position on the mass balance accounting rules being adopted in the EU for allocating recycled content from chemical recycling in the Single-Use Plastic Directive (SUPD), and ahead of discussions about the rules to be adopted for the PPWR? Our new facility processes liquefied waste plastic, and then the upgraded pyrolysis oil is co-processed with intermediates coming from crude oil refining [in the Porvoo refinery]. The rules that were laid down for the SUPD make it rather difficult for the refineries to create value from their contribution towards the recycled content targets. We want to ensure that the refineries will enable the scale-up of chemical recycling within Europe. Refineries have a role to play for several reasons. It is about a lower investment overall, because refineries have existing infrastructure that can be used at a lower cost than greenfield. We know from the Draghi report [a 2024 report by Italy's Mario Draghi on Europe's competitiveness and the EU's future] that Europe doesn't have that much investment money on the table. The Porvoo refinery is able to remove impurities and optimise chemical compositions. This allows liquefiers to use more difficult-to-recycle waste streams and eases the raw material competition with mechanical recycling. We hope Europe readjusts the mass balance recycled content calculation rules for the PPWR, so that we can really unleash the potential of this upgrading unit that we have finalised. What could those amendments look like? One idea is to add detail about specific refinery processes, to allow more recycled "credits" to be assigned to petrochemical feedstock if only certain units of the refinery are used to co-process pyrolysis oil, rather than requiring credits to be allocated proportionally across all the refinery output… We are analysing how we could do a credible, credit-based mass balance within the refinery and make it technically and economically feasible at the same time. What you mentioned is potentially one of the ways this could work. But without knowing the exact details, it is difficult to say if it would work for us. We are supporting the fuel use exempt model. We are not advocating for free attribution. But we just need to find ways, for the calculation rules to address the specifics of refineries in a way that they can be eligible within the framework. Neste also owns the European technology licensing rights for pyrolysis company Alterra Energy. How do you perceive the current investment environment for new chemical recycling installations in Europe? We continue to see interest in investing in liquefaction in Europe and we work together with our partners Technip Energies and Alterra to commercialise Alterra's technology. Some investments are being idled or delayed. I guess because players want to wait for clear EU-wide rules on mass balance and end-of-waste criteria. Pyrolysis is one of the most promising technologies to handle the multi-layer packaging waste, mixed plastic waste and other difficult-to-recycle plastic waste streams. Legislative uncertainty is not the only hurdle, but probably the biggest one... also the geopolitical situation and costs in general have an impact. Would Neste invest itself in pyrolysis capacity in Europe? Our role today is in the upgrading part of the value chain. The aim of the licensing is to create supply and accelerate the scaling up of chemical recycling. If the mass balance rules remain unfavourable towards an upgrading process such as the one you have, involving co-processing in a refinery, for PPWR, are there other uses for this upgrader? And what is the future for the asset? Our priority is on upgrading liquefied waste plastic even if we have recognised the restricted raw material availability at the moment. The investment was made solely for liquefied waste plastic and we created a segregated liquefied waste plastic input for the upgrading facility. All in all, it's too early to talk about something like that, because we primarily want to see the liquefied waste plastic succeeding in the polymers and chemicals market. We are not looking at the fuel pool as an alternative market for liquefied waste plastic-based products. Neste is also a major biofuels producer. Would you support bio-based polymers being allowed to count towards existing recycled content targets in PPWR, or would you prefer them to have separate targets? We're in favour of including bio-based plastics within PPWR, and how we would want to see it happen is with separate targets for bio-based material and recycled material. We are a firm believer in the need to move away from the use of fossil raw materials and need to enable all possible raw materials and technologies to be eligible and to thrive. Recycled and renewable raw materials for the petrochemical industry work well together and can make the greatest impact in moving away from the use of fossil. Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2026. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.