Kickstart: Tracking big changes in rotomolding

Rotomolding is the smallest of the plastics processes that Plastics News ranks each year. But being small doesn't mean it isn't interesting.

That branch of the industry has been undergoing some massive consolidation in the past few years with a few companies driving merger and acquisition activities in North America. The biggest rotomolder, Tank Holding Co. of Lincoln, Ne., has made at least 20 acquisitions in three years, most of them in rotational molding as it seeks to round up smaller companies in the sector.

And as Hollee Keller, PN's editorial research coordinator, notes in her blog about the new ranking, a lot of those acquisitions are coming from firms buying their own suppliers, so that, "what was once custom becomes captive. That seems to happen frequently in the rotomolding sector."

One recent example of that was in December when Kaivac Inc., a maker of industrial cleaning machinery, purchased its supplier Eger Products Inc.

The latest pricing statistics for recycled plastics in Europe make it clear that sustainability efforts are struggling in a sagging economy there.

As Karen Laird of our sister paper Sustainable Plastics noted — both in stories and in the August Sustainable Plastics Live webinar — economic conditions have struggled in Western Europe since Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022, adding to inflation after COVID-19 shutdowns and cutbacks.

David Platt notes for SP that recycled plastics prices are under "severe pressure because of persistent weak demand due to economic stagnation and competition from off-spec virgin plastics" and cheaper imports from Asia.

But also: "Sustainability considerations seem to have now taken a back seat behind economic factors, especially in Central and Eastern Europe," he writes.

Recyclers have reduced production in attempts to meet reduced demand, but the signs are that a downward pressure on prices have continued through the first two weeks of August, he writes.

At the same time, not using recycled materials is costing companies.

The United Kingdom says that it collected 276 million pounds ($352 million) in the first year since its plastic packaging tax went into effect.

The PPT requires that producers of plastic packaging manufactured in — or imported into — the U.K. pay 200 pounds ($255) per metric ton of plastic packaging if those products do not contain at least 30 percent recycled plastic. The fee goes up by 10 pounds per tonne for the 2023-24 fiscal year.

The tax doesn't apply to manufacturers or importers of fewer than 10 tonnes of packaging per year, packaging exported from the U.K. or packaging for human medication.

The fees for the first year added up to about $50 million more than government leaders had expected.