INNOVATION | FILM


Right: R-Cycle is aiming to map the entire value chain of plastic packaging


post-consumer recycling qualities. A digitisation project took place in parallel to set up an online system that records all the stages and processing steps – from the printed plastic sheet to the recycled pellets and the new products – using data input by all the partners involved. This makes uniform certifica- tion much easier and saves time and costs. Film extrusion technology group Reifenhäuser


has started a collaborative project, R-Cycle. The aim is to ensure the recyclability of plastic packaging through the complete documentation of all recy- cling-relevant packaging properties. The company says that this is the only way to identify valuable materials in the recycling process precisely and use them for reprocessing in diverse and high-quality plastic products. Other partners in R-Cycle include Arburg, Brückner Maschinenbau and Kautex Maschinenbau, representing other process technolo- gies, as well as the Institute for Plastics Processing (IKV) at RWTH Aachen. They are supported by GS1 Germany, a neutral competence and service centre for the optimisation of cross-company business processes along the value chain. A cross-sector and globally applicable standard emerging from R-Cycle will be available to all companies and industries along the life cycle of plastic packaging. R-Cycle uses tried-and-tested marking and


Below: Seven different cheeses are now being stocked in Tesco’s stores made from the first recycled flexible packaging from materials returned by customers


tracing technologies, such as those already used for fresh products in the food industry, to provide the supply chain with digital information. Numer- ous pilot projects are underway with partner companies, including global raw material suppliers, trading companies, global brands and independ- ent institutions. An international academic and industry research


consortium has secured €12m across two EU- and China-funded projects – BioICEP and Terminus – targeting problematic multi-layered plastics. Researchers at Athlone Institute of Technology in Ireland and Sigma Clermont in France have begun joint work on two projects to develop novel


technologies that will separate, treat and repurpose multi-layered plastics. Multi-layered packaging, for example crisp bags and other ready-to-eat snacks within shiny packets, account for up to 56% of plastic packaging in developed countries. The plastics are difficult to separate into discrete layers that can be effectively recycled. By the end of the four-year projects, researchers hope that the combined outputs from both projects will provide a new generation of green technologies. The Terminus project aims to develop new biotechnology specifically designed to separate out the layers from multi-layered film and packag- ing using enzymes to degrade the layers of adhesive holding the plastics together. Technology developed through BioICEP will take the individual layers of plastic generated through Terminus and break these down further into their chemical constituents through depolymerisation using combined green mechano-chemical and enzymatic technology. In combination, the two projects will convert multilayer plastic waste into individual building blocks for new plastics. DuPont Teijin Films is collaborating with


Poseidon Plastics, Alpek Polyester UK, Biffa Waste Services, GRN Sportswear, O’Neills Irish Interna- tional Sports Company and the University of York to develop Poseidon’s enhanced PET recycling technology. The collaborative project, partially funded by UK Research and Innovation as part of its Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging challenge, strives to bring together input from across the PET value chain to demonstrate the potential of the technology to enable a circular economy for some of the more challenging fractions of PET waste. DuPont Teijin Films will be working closely with


Poseidon to facilitate application of its technology to flexible PET films. This will use pilot and produc- tion scale polymerisation facilities to develop a PET


20 PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD | January/February 2021 www.plasticsrecyclingworld.com


IMAGE: TESCO


IMAGE: R-CYCLE


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