FLEXIBLE PACKAGING | TECHNOLOGY
The challenge of recycling post-consumer multilayer film packaging has been addressed in an EU multi-partner project. David Eldridge reports on this and other technologies
Tackling complex PCR films
The EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regula- tion has set a 55% recycling rate target for plastics packaging by 2030. Along with this headline figure, the European Commission requires packaging companies to make all plastics packaging recycla- ble by design and include minimum amounts of recyclate in new packaging. All of these goals are particularly difficult to achieve in film and flexible packaging: collection restraints – caused by the light weight of film, for example – slow down growth in recycling rates; multilayer packaging designs hamper recyclability; and recyclate must overcome contamination and processing issues to be used again in high-quality flexible packaging. This is the context in which final results have
been presented for the 3 ½-year, EU-funded CIMPA project, which aims to advance the circular- ity of complex films. Co-ordinated by Industrial Technical Centre for Plastics and Composites (IPC) in France, CIMPA’s partners have run work pro- grams to develop solutions for recycling multilayer films that have focused on structural design, sorting technologies, decontamination, mechanical and physical recycling processes, valorisation and
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reintroduction. CIMPA Coordinator Céline Cheval- lier from IPC gave an overview of project demon- strators at the laboratory scale and pre-production scale during CIMPA’s final event held in Brussels in November last year. A broad conclusion from this work was that post-consumer recycled (PCR) material is compliant with agricultural standards, but optical properties impact its use in food packaging. Post-industrial recycled (PIR) material can be used in both application areas. In the project, polyethylene multilayer waste collected by waste management company Paprec was sorted by technology developers Pellenc ST and Filigrade using a joint prototype which combines near-infrared (NIR) sorting and digital watermarking (DW) technology (Filigrade’s CurvCode system). The combined technologies achieved up to 97% sorting efficiency. At the final event, Marien De Lint from Filigrade and Raphael Josselin Verdier from Pellenc ST highlighted the potential of the combined technologies in PE multilayer film recycling and other areas. They said that unlocking the NIR + DW sorting solution requires agreement on common standards for DW
Main image: Projects are showing the potential for closing the loop in flexible packaging
January/February 2025 | PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD 13
IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK
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