Are you ready for the "new plastic war" in Europe?

From the reporter's personal experience in Belgium, the overall consumption of plastic materials in Europe is still a lot.
Usually, people usually go to the supermarket to buy vegetables and meat, and most vegetables, fruits and meat in the supermarket will be packaged in a plastic box or plastic bag
.
Especially since the epidemic, in order to ensure that food is not contaminated by viruses, the proportion of packaged meat, vegetables and fruits is higher than before, and a lot of plastic waste is generated every day when cooking
.

At present, Europe is very advocating the use of recycled plastics, and many products will specifically indicate that 100% of their packaging comes from recycled plastics in advertisements
.
According to the reporter's observation, basically, most of the packaging of fruits and vegetables, meat and beverage bottles has come from recycled plastics
.
In addition, the fashion trend led by recycled plastics has recently become popular in Europe.
For example, stationery manufacturer BIC cooperated with plastic furniture manufacturer Plas Eco with recycled plastic penholders to design and manufacture a series of outdoor furniture, which is highly sought after by the market
.

Next year is a turning point

"Under the new policy, there is also a wave of mergers and acquisitions of plastic recycling companies in Europe
.
" Strache said, for example, Borealis acquired two German plastic recycling companies in 2016, and last year launched a plastic recycling project with Austrian Ecoplast.

.
Indorama, headquartered in Bangkok, Thailand, has acquired a number of European plastics companies since 2017
.

Chinese companies have also invested heavily in the European waste recycling industry in recent years
.
Among them, in 2016, Beijing Enterprises Group acquired all the shares of German EEW company at a price of about 1.
438 billion euros
.
In the same year, Tianxiang Environment also jointly acquired a 60% stake in the two business sectors of resource regeneration and solid waste comprehensive management services under the ALBA Group, the second largest waste management company in Germany, together with a number of well-known investment institutions
.
The reporter learned that plastic waste recycling is also a major business of ALBA Group
.

Kong Wen, a Chinese engineer in charge of a plastic waste recycling company in Munich, Germany, told reporters that China's ban on foreign waste has not only changed the European plastic waste recycling industry, but also domestic companies
.
As far as he knows, hundreds of Chinese plastics companies have begun to move to Southeast Asia, Japan and Africa to enter the local plastic recycling industry, establish plastic pellet companies, and then export from the local area to the country
.
Now, many Chinese investors want to enter Europe, but are still on the sidelines
.

Strache said that the new plastic policy of the European Union and national governments will be implemented on a large scale from next year, which is a turning point for the industry
.
It is the right time for Chinese companies to enter Europe: first, the "plastic packaging tax" will be levied in January next year, and all walks of life use recyclable plastics; second, countries have promoted policies, including tax cuts, etc.
; third, Many plastic recycling companies need investment, especially optimistic about China's large market
.

However, it should also be noted that the plastic recycling industry has a high technical content and may involve relatively high-end core technologies
.
This year, the EU released the White Paper on Promoting Fair Competition for Foreign Government Subsidies, which will be open for public consultation on September 23, before starting the legislative process in 2021
.
The EU wants to prevent foreign companies enjoying large sums of state money from taking over or taking large stakes in struggling European companies
.
When a foreign company's share capital reaches a certain amount, it needs to be submitted to the European Commission for review
.
However, the European Commission has not announced a specific amount cap
.
Before Chinese companies invest in M&A-related European projects and companies, they must do their homework and carefully study the relevant restrictions on technology and policies
.