Materials
Even in Europe, flexible packaging is not part of the packaging collection system. This is something that must change.
Recycling rates can even differ inside a country itself, because of different collections and infrastructure. Throughout Europe, community by community, region by region, there is a waste management system that is super fragmented. This is another challenge.
Above: Food waste is as much a major resource waste as flexible packaging.
Previous page: The high-speed manufacture
of flexible packaging.
specific to the product being protected. This is why flexible has become such an exciting sector to work in. As a by-product, these engineered structures provide excellent barriers and shelf life enhancement. Although consumers are looking for more sustainable solutions, flexible packaging cannot simply be taken away because that is what provides the barrier and performance. The product would be poorer, and the consumer would be less likely to buy it. Markets have shown that people aren’t willing or able to give up the convenience and function of flexible packaging. This is despite a wide desire to reduce the amount of waste that modern societies produce.
“In flexible packaging, the focus is very much on the attainment of a circular economy, which would provide the maximum use of resources for the minimum impact.”
Organic waste
While consumers might focus on packaging waste, a bigger issue is food waste. Many think that food waste is organic and easy to return to the planet, meaning there is no problem. But the resources splurged on creating, harvesting and shipping produce to a point of purchase and use are enormous. If food is not eaten it is a waste of resources, and if it goes off before even being sold, that is an even bigger waste as there is no return on investment – just massive costs. For those in flexible packaging, however, the focus is very much on the attainment of a circular economy, which would provide the maximum use of resources for the minimum impact, socially, financially and environmentally. One difficulty is that flexible packaging is not recycled everywhere.
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Another is that though the system is heavily fragmented, brand owners still pay extended producer responsibility fees. It is a burden that they pay the expense for a system, but the system does not completely cover or resolve the issues. Until recently, the recycling rate targets could always be met without taking up the challenge of collecting and recycling flexible packaging. Because it’s lightweight, and the recycling targets are weight-based, it takes a massive amount of flexible packaging to weigh much. This was one of the reasons behind Flexible Packaging Europe’s CEFLEX initiative, which focused on the journey of flexible packaging to a circular economy. With the incoming packaging commitments that all packaging must be recyclable, and brand commitments and legislative focus on making this a reality by 2030, the focus turns on how industry can make flexible circular so it fits into this ideal.
Step one
Overall, there are two main ways to make flexible packaging circular. Either adapt the material composition to the existing waste management infrastructure, or upgrade the waste management infrastructure – for example, add new technologies. Flexible Packaging Europe believes that, for maximum effect, it is best to incorporate both. As there are so many different structures to flexible packaging, the recycling processes differ. There is no simple way to do all recycling, and even if a more efficient way is developed, there still has to be a way to scale up the new technologies and bring them on board to have the maximum effect. This also applies to mechanical and chemical recycling. Under current legislation, output of mechanical recycling cannot be used for food contact-grade materials. This is another of those layers of complication in the waste management stream. Though mechanical recycling is efficient, legislation and food safety concerns mean there is no room for even a window of doubt that the process could allow any contamination or loss of barrier. In fact, every plant has to be individually approved in the recycling process by the EU; a successful plant can’t simply be copied and expected to be rubber stamped.
Packaging & Converting Intelligence /
www.pci-mag.com
Antonello Marangi/
Shutterstock.com
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