FLEXIBLE PACKAGING | INNOVATION
As the European Commission increases pressure on plastics packaging, companies and organisations in the flexible packaging sector are working to find answers to recycling questions. By David Eldridge
IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK
Recyclable: a new goal for flexible packaging
Flexible packaging is one of the great achievements of the plastics industry, providing protection to and extending the useable life of fresh food, yet minimis- ing material use and having other environmental advantages over alternative packaging. Now that plastics circularity has come to the forefront, the term “hard to recycle” is often used in relation to films and flexible packaging due to issues such as mixed material waste streams, multilayer structures and the inks and adhesives on PCR packaging that compli- cate or prevent effective mechanical recycling. Recyclability has become the focus for collaboration in the flexible packaging sector, given more urgency by the European Commission’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) plans which will require all packaging to be recyclable by 2030. The major Ceflex collaborative project, which is working to overcome obstacles on the path to flexible packaging circularity, has published a report on near infrared (NIR) sorting of a compre-
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hensive range of flexible polyethylene and poly- propylene packaging examined in a large-scale testing programme. The purpose of the testing was to understand how a NIR sorting device sees flexible packaging and varied material structures and then classifies them into different recycling streams. Ceflex said the resulting data illustrates how to enhance design for recycling guidance, improve design decisions and optimise sorting of flexible plastic packaging with NIR. “NIR is an established key technology for sorting plastics across Europe, so rigorous, independent data of exactly what it can – and cannot – achieve is essential,” said Graham Houlder, Project Coordina- tor at Ceflex. “As a result of this research, specific cases or
thresholds where materials and elements of the packaging structure can disrupt sorting are clearly established,” he said. The NIR sortability testing is part of a substantial
January/February 2024 | PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD 15
Main image: Hard to recycle? Companies are collaborating to overcome challenges in recycling flexible packaging
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