A consortium of European EPS suppliers who had lobbied for the prolonged use of the HBCD flame retardant has been largely disbanded. Founded in 2014 with the aim of prolonging the material’s usage (see Plasteurope.com of 11.03.2014), the group successfully lobbied the European Commission for an extension of the deadline to 21 August 2017 (see Plasteurope.com of 18.01.2016).

Explaining their decision to leave the consortium, the companies said the only reason they had asked for a postponement was for insurance-purposes, “in case of insufficient availability of alternatives.” They emphasised that all of them started producing flame-retarded EPS grades well ahead of the original sunset date of 21 August 2015, adding that now that availability of REACH-compliant alternative flame retardants is good, “it is possible to guarantee regular supply of FR EPS grades in HBCDD-free formulations.”

The companies that have now withdrawn from the consortium are Versalis (Milan / Italy; www.eni.com), Ineos (Rolle / Switzerland; www.ineos.com), StyroChem (Porvoo / Finland; www.styrochem.com), Synthos (Oswiecim / Poland; www.synthosgroup.com), Sunpor (St. Pölten / Austria; www.sunpor.at), Synbra (Etten-Leur / The Netherlands; www.synbra.com), Unipol (Oss / The Netherlands; www.unipol.nl) and Dunastyr Polystyrene Manufacturing (Zizkov / Czech Republic).