On October 1, the re-elected president of Chemical Recycling Europe told delegates the sector must deliver 'demand, demand and demand' before the EU's 2030 Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation recycled-content targets take hold.

Speaking at the Chemical Recycling Europe Conference 2026, Valentijn de Neve set out a sequenced framework for the path to scale. He named three D's ahead of three I's on the priority list.

"Before the three I's must come the three D's: 'demand, demand and demand'," de Neve said. Offtake contracts must develop well before the PPWR targets take effect in 2030, he added.

What sits inside de Neve's three I's?

The three I's name the bottlenecks the sector still has to clear on the way to 2030:

• Innovation — process improvements that lift pyrolysis yields
• Implementing acts — secondary EU measures that translate PPWR's framework into enforceable national obligations
• Investment — capital that converts yield gains and rule clarity into commercial-capacity buildout

De Neve grouped those three pillars as a single priority sequence. He ranked each behind commercial demand.

Where does cost sit in the framework?

De Neve rejected a sequential burden model. Costs must be shared across the value chain rather than falling solely on recyclers, petrochemical producers or brand owners, he said. The position treats cost-sharing as the precondition for pyrolysis capacity to come online at the scale PPWR will require.

Without contracts that pay a premium for recycled content, project finance for new units stalls. De Neve's framework treats that pricing dynamic as the gating condition for the pre-2030 phase.

How does de Neve's sequence work in practice?

A practical reading: brand owners and resin converters sign multi-year offtake at a recycled-content premium. That contract signals to pyrolysis developers, who trigger final investment on new capacity. Yield improvements follow as scale justifies process research and development. Each link in the chain strengthens the case for the next.

The order inverts how chemical recycling operated in its early commercial phase — announcements led, capital followed, offtake trailed. De Neve's framework puts offtake first.

Why is upgrading the next pinch point?

De Neve raised a second question: whether upgrading capacity will keep pace with rising pyrolysis-oil volumes. Upgrading refines raw pyrolysis output to the specification a steam cracker or polymerisation unit can consume. He expects PPWR enforcement to incentivise further investment in centralised and decentralised upgrading capacity.

The risk he identified: feedstock piles up at terminals if refining trails the pyrolysis reactor train. De Neve did not name individual projects but flagged the gap between pyrolysis buildout announcements and downstream upgrading commitments.

What does the next EU decision hinge on?

The European Commission's forthcoming implementing act on PPWR mass balance rules will decide how recycled-content accounting flows through chemical recycling supply chains — and whether pyrolysis oil qualifies for credit at a level that supports premium offtake.

De Neve tied the expected regulatory clarity to that act. He said it will determine the course of the upgrading debate. Until the act publishes, mass balance attribution between mechanically and chemically recycled streams remains contested, and resin buyers keep offtake volumes conservative.

What does the next regulatory milestone look like?

The next move sits with the Commission, which is expected to table the mass balance implementing act under its forthcoming work programme. PPWR's recycled-content obligations apply from 2030. Watch the implementing act's publication as the trigger for the next wave of offtake commitments and upgrading-related final investment decisions in subsequent quarters.