MATERIALS | STRETCH & SHRINK FILM


around a scale, which is then conveyed through a shrink tunnel at varying conveyor speeds. The force generated on the scale is measured – then the TD is measured to determine the shrink percentage. “Shrink films designed with up to 40% rPE deliver nearly identical performance to virgin control films across most key metrics,” he said. Increasing rPE content beyond 40% (and


replacing HDPE) in the film increases haze and reduces toughness and shrink force. However, adjusting LDPE/HDPE ratios and rPE content allows optimisation of appearance, strength, and shrink behaviour, he added.


Above: Nova Chemicals has made a series of shrink films using its Syndigo rLLDPE


In an EU trial, it reduced gels and operating


temperatures (from 220°C to 192°C). “We found that it works well in LLDPE and LLDPE-rich LDPE,” he said. The recyclate is now being trailed at major customers – and some recycling equipment is adding liquid feed capability (which is a lower cost of use compared to masterbatch, he said.


In the loop Derek Wasylenko, a research scientist for circular products R&D at Nova Chemicals, said high-quali- ty recyclate – such as its Syndigo rLLDPE – can boost the quality of shrink films. The material is made at its mechanical recycling facility in Connersville, Indiana – which collects plastics films from retail, distribution centres and consumer drop-off locations and processes them into pellets. In a trial, it made four three-layer shrink films on a blown film line at 2.25 mil thickness. One was a control, made of virgin LLDPE and HDPE; the other three contained 39%, 49% and 73% rPE – which was sourced from stretch film. The films were used to create a 40-pack nested water bottle shrink package. Visually, all the film rolls looked good, despite the varying rPE content. “There was a slight increase in greyish colour, but no obvious or significant changes to gloss or gels,” he said. The 39% rPE film had a similar shrinkage to


virgin film, but the others lowered the onset of shrink. “This is most likely a result of reduced HDPE content of the structure, allowing for more rapid film relaxation,” said Wasylenko. Nova also developed a new shrink force test method to measure film performance. This was developed in house and is now used by several of its customers. It involves wrapping film specimens


24 FILM & SHEET EXTRUSION | May/June 2026 Recycling with AI


One company has adapted technology used for astronomy to improve film recycling. Francis Doumet, CEO of Metaspectral, told


delegates that his company is using a version of hyperspectral imaging – which is typically used to observe distant stars – to sort a wide variety of polymers.


Hyperspectral imaging “analyses a wide spec-


trum of light instead of just assigning primary colours (red, green, blue) to each pixel”. It detects the presence of molecules such as carbon, nitro- gen and oxygen.


“It opens the world to missing data, but is


incredibly complex,” said Doumet. The technique combines data compression,


sub-pixel level analysis, deep neural networks and generative AI to improve detection. This, he says, means it can perform challenging


material identification and sorting of almost any polymer “at the molecular level” including: black plastics; transparent objects; flexible and thin film; multi-layer or mixed-polymer materials; and different grades of the same polymer. For instance, he said sub-pixel level technology can detect flexible PVC in a PE waste stream. It can also separate mono-material and multi-material film – and differentiate between a wide range of flexible materials (such as PE, PET, nylon and mixed plastics). The technology, commercialised in 2024, can also detect gels. Its ‘anchor customer’, Merlin Plastics, is a major Canadian plastics recycler. They system can handle over 3,500 lbs per hour on a single conveyor system and integrates with down- stream sorter, air jet/ejection and mechanical picker technologies – finding pieces as small as 0.5cm. n The next Stretch and Shrink Film North America is held in Savannah, Georgia on 8-9 December 2026. For more details, contact Zoe Jarvis on +1 610 478 0800 (zoe.jarvis@amiplastics.com).


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IMAGE: NOVA CHEMICALS


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