The European Plastics Converters Association (EuPC, Brussels / Belgium; www.eupc.org) has said that rapid progress is being made in developing a voluntary agreement on energy efficiency with Europe’s leading national plastics processing organisations, following the “EuPlastVoltage” two-year EC-funded energy management project (www.euplastvoltage.eu), which began in June 2009. The project had the aim of developing a long-term drive to reduce energy consumption in Europe’s plastics industry.

EuPC said the voluntary agreement, signed on 30 November 2011, will act as an important tool in market transformation, raising awareness of energy legislation among SMEs, while tackling potential for energy savings within the industry. The major European plastics processing countries, acting as a collective through EuPC, will contribute directly to the EU objective of 20% energy savings by 2020.

National plastics associations will submit a long-term plan to EuPC, covering four years, detailing the background to energy policy in their respective countries and how they will implement the voluntary agreement in their own country. Each national plastics association will monitor progress of its own members and report back to EuPC on developments on an annual basis. Aggregated reports will be compiled and presented to the “EuPlastVoltage” advisory committee, which will co-ordinate all activities and monitor progress.

The voluntary agreement has been signed by the national plastics associations of Spain (ANAIP), Hungary (AHPI), Portugal (APIP), UK (BPF), The Netherlands (NRK), France (La Plasturgie), Germany (IK) and Belgium (Federplast) and covers the period 2010 to 2013.