PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Brussels,7 November 2008

BIRAutumn Round-Table Sessions

Düsseldorf,30-31 October 2008

PlasticsCommittee/Tyres Committee:

Spotlighton Carbon Credits and REACh

Atthe first-ever joint Round-Table meeting of BIR’s Plastics andTyres Committees, a succession of market reports served to confirmthe view of BIR Plastics Committee Chairman Surendra Borad that themarket is “in turmoil”.

Accordingto Peter Daalder of Daly Plastics BV in the Netherlands, buyers inAsia are experiencing financial problems such that payments havebecome affected. However, with demurrage costs so high at many ports,“you have to make a quick decision about what to do”. On abrighter note, he expected greater stability to emerge after ChineseNew Year or even earlier.

JacquesMusa of Veolia Propreté France Recycling reported that, in China,the price of primary polypropylene had slumped from US$ 1600 pertonne in September to US$ 800 by the end of October. As regards thecountry’s prices for plastics scrap, he added: “We are stillwaiting for November prices but we surely know that they will be muchlower than in the past months.” In France, he noted, plasticsrecyclers’ sales since September have been 50% lower than lastyear.

TheIndian market has been suffering to a less severe extent althoughprimary raw material prices have dropped by more than US$ 500 pertonne, according to Mr Borad of Belgium-based Gemini Corporation NV.“One good development I have noticed,” he added, “is that therehas been an increase in exports of PET scrap to India.”

InDüsseldorf, Mr Borad re-asserted his conviction that the plasticsrecycling industry should pursue its case for receiving carboncredits. “I strongly believe that plastics recycling reduces carbonemissions and therefore is eligible for carbon credits,” he said.Basing his opinion on available data, he added: “We should beentitled to Euro 25-30 per tonne.”

DrJoachim Wuttke of the Federal Environmental Agency in Germany arguedthat many EU countries harbour “enormous potential” for reducingharmful gas emissions through increased recycling activity. Fellowguest speaker Markus Götz of carbon credit specialist FutureCampGmbH in Germany outlined some of the practical avenues plasticsrecyclers may choose to follow in their bid to secure credits. But hewarned: “It can be quite a long route and there can be so manyproblems on the way.”

Accordingto BIR Tyres Committee Chairman Barend Ten Bruggencate of theNetherlands, the recycling industry has reason to be content with thefinalised EU Waste Framework Directive, not least because recyclingis given precedence over other recovery routes. However, he added,accession countries in particular will struggle to meet thedirective’s goal of separate collection of recovered paper, metals,plastics and glass by the year 2015.

Themeeting also covered the EU’s regulation on the Registration,Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals (REACh) whose aimis to make persons placing chemicals on the market responsible forunderstanding and managing the risks associated with their use. Guestspeaker Kees Wielenga of FFact Management Consultants in theNetherlands pointed out that pre-registration of substances byDecember 1 2008 would guarantee recyclers an extended deadline forregistration and the certainty of access to the market.Pre-registrationis a simple, free-of-charge procedure and requires provision of onlylimited data, he emphasised.

Fellowguest speaker Dr Ulbert Hofstra of Intron BV, also from theNetherlands, revealed the results of experiments into the leaching ofzinc from rubber infill. It has been concluded that the weatheringimpact on tyre-derived rubber crumb during the technical life-time ofan artificial sports field does not cause leaching of zinc inquantities exceeding permissible threshold values. Exposure testshave also showed that “there is no significant health risk toplayers from the use of rubber infill from recycled car tyres inartificial football pitches”.

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