In July 2026, at the Global Conference on Plastics Recycling and Sustainability (GCPRS) 2026 in New Delhi, Beril Baykal Yesilırmak, technical director at Vanden Recycling, urged recyclers to shift their focus beyond today’s operational challenges and prepare for a market that will be shaped by regulations, traceability, quality, and supply security over the next five years.
With more than a decade of experience in the plastics recycling industry, she argued that though the industry might pay attention to issues such as volatility, inconsistent quality, and securing clean feedstock, all of these challenges will soon be taken over by more complicated ones in the foreseeable future.
“We are all experts at solving today’s problems,” she remarked. “But tomorrow’s problems will not look like today’s. The businesses that ask the right questions now will be the ones that succeed.”
She encouraged recyclers to be prepared to tackle future challenges of the recycling industry by asking them about their feedstock quality in the future, and also whether their existing suppliers could support that transition, and whether their processing capabilities would be adequate as per the changing quality and variety of the recycled materials.
She also highlighted that recycled plastics today are being shaped majorly by two factors: compliance-driven demand and application-driven demand. Regulatory measures such as recycled content mandates, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) frameworks, and tighter import-export controls are restricting the movement of recycled plastics across various regions. On the other hand, sectors inclusive of packaging and automotive are leading to growing demand for higher-quality recycled content that is performing independently of virgin polymer pricing.
“The next phase will not be won on price,” she said. “It will be won by those who can secure long-term supply while consistently delivering quality.”
Governments of regions such as Europe, the UK, the US, India, Vietnam, Malaysia, and South Korea are mainly focusing on strengthening recycling regulations. Competition for quality feedstock is expected to intensify in the foreseeable period. The material highly sought by the recycling industries may start falling short in the upcoming years due to the increasing number of competitors in the industry, as they would be competing for the same recycled resources.
To explain the future changes in detail, Yesilrmak cited that fiber manufacturers have traditionally been dependent on a limited number of stable feedstock sources. Hence, today packaging and other regulated sectors are competing for a limited material stream, leading to recyclers needing to broaden their acceptance criteria and also learn to process a wider range of feedstock qualities.
“Instead of relying on one or two grades, you may soon be sourcing from 30 or 40 different suppliers, each offering different contamination levels and quality. If you can handle that variety while producing a consistent output, you will be ahead of the market.”
She suggested to recyclers that they should begin building in-house expertise to upgrade the lower-quality plastics into consistent, application-ready materials. Developing the expertise to process a wider range of specifications with ease will help to stand out as a competitive advantage for recyclers.
She also emphasized that investment will be the next major factor to pay attention to in the future of the recycling industry. She suggested that improvements should begin with sophisticated sourcing strategies supported by digital technologies and artificial intelligence to identify and manage feedstock streams. Enhanced sorting systems – including magnetic separation, eddy current separation, optical sorting, color sorting, and density separation – can significantly improve material consistency before washing and reprocessing.
Advanced washing systems, including caustic washing, friction washing, and contaminant removal, help to eliminate adhesives, labels, and other impurities, along with dedusting and fine particle removal, improving flake quality. She also suggested that rejected materials and streams should not be merely discarded, but can be upgraded and directed towards sustainable secondary applications.
“The principle is simple,” she explained. “The more capability you build at each stage, the greater your tolerance for feedstock variation. The more variation you can handle, the stronger your business becomes.”
She also highlighted the growing importance of polymer modification and compounding in producing higher-value recycled materials. For recycled PET, additives can improve color, enhance intrinsic viscosity (IV), and support bottle-to-bottle recycling, while solid-state polymerization (SSP) technologies can reduce energy consumption and processing time. For recycled HDPE, specialized additives can improve environmental stress crack resistance (ESCR), stabilize melt flow index (MFI), and maintain consistent color for demanding applications.
Summing up her message, she said that, “The winners will be those who adapt the fastest, strategic sourcing, processing capability, and supply chain design will determine who captures the next wave of market growth.”
31 July 2026
30 July 2026
30 July 2026
30 July 2026