A new project called Ceflex (www.ceflex.eu) has been established by a consortium of European companies that represent the flexible packaging value chain. The aim of the project is to further increase the sorting and recycling of flexible packaging to make it more relevant to the circular economy. It continues the work of two other projects that have now concluded: “Fiace”, which helped quantify the added value and identify opportunities to increase recycling, and “Reflex”, which focused on recycling flexible packaging in the UK – see Plasteurope.com of 02.11.2016.

Project coordinator Graham Houlder explained that the earlier studies had clearly identified the technical solutions for successfully sorting and recycling more than 50% of flexible packaging and Ceflex was taking this work forward.

Ceflex aims to develop a collection, sorting and reprocessing infrastructure for post-consumer flexible packaging across Europe by 2025. This will be enabled by the development and application of robust design guidelines for both flexible packaging and the end-of-cycle infrastructure, due for completion by 2020.

Michael Scriba, managing director of mtm plastics (Niedergebra / Germany; www.mtm-plastics.eu), part of Borealis (Vienna / Austria; www.borealisgroup.com), said the techniques that had already been successfully developed to separate and sort mixed materials need to be improved and expanded. “In addition, and equally important, there is a need to further develop and establish financially sustainable end markets for secondary materials recycled from flexible packaging,” he said.

Director of sustainability at Ceflex stakeholder Amcor (Melbourne / Australia; www.amcor.com), Gerald Rebitzer, added that while flexible packaging excelled in terms of material efficiency and overall life-cycle performance, an end-to-end solution was still in its infancy and the project would help close that gap.

The consortium has 34 stakeholders currently, including raw materials suppliers, packaging converters, brand owners and retailers, producer responsibility organisations, collectors, sorters and recyclers as well as other technology suppliers and end-users of the secondary raw materials.