A UK research project to develop recycling options for flexible plastic packaging has demonstrated that attractive yields of recycled materials could be achieved, concludes the project’s leader, Axion Consulting (Bramhall / UK; www.axionconsulting.co.uk). The ability to recycle this type of packaging at end-of-life will be “moving forward” following successful research and trials conducted by the two-year “Reflex Project” (www.reflexproject.co.uk), said the resource recovery specialist, which led a consortium of value chain participants collaborating on the project. The project was set up in December 2014 (see Plasteurope.com of 01.07.2015) and is co-funded by the UK’s innovation agency Innovate UK (www.innovateuk.org).

The consortium has developed guidelines aimed at providing information to packaging designers and technologists, brand owners, retailers and converters to design flexible packaging that is suitable for mechanical recycling. However, Axion Consulting said more work is needed to investigate and evaluate the compatibility of all the materials, so the guidelines will not be released until further tests have been completed and validated at European level.

Other consortium members are Amcor (Abbotsford / Australia; www.amcor.com), Dow Chemical (Midland, Michigan / USA; www.dow.com), Interflex (Wilkesboro, North Carolina / USA; www.interflexgroup.com), Nestlé (Vevey / Switzerland; www.nestle.com), Suez Environnement (Paris La Défense / France; www.suez-environnement.com), Tomra Sorting (Drengsrudhagen / Norway; www.tomra.com/en) and Unilever (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey / USA; www.unilever.com).

The project addressed technical challenges in establishing an infrastructure to collect, sort and recycle polyolefinic flexible packaging in the UK. For example, along with improvement of flexible packaging designs, the project looked at digital watermarking on packaging that is suitable for mechanical recycling and the use and enhancement of near infra-red sorting technologies. “We think that these changes and further technology optimisation can improve the economics of recycling flexible packaging and make the concept more attractive to investors and recyclers,” said Axion Consulting senior engineer Richard McKinlay. Practical trials have shown that recovered polymers can deliver the performance requirements and technical properties needed for items such as boxes and crates or drainage pipe products, he added.

Roger Morton, director of Axion Consulting, said the project “demonstrated how state-of-the-art technology in sorting and preparation for recycling can help increase the rate of flexible packaging recycling. It also showed how novel packaging designs and potential new marking techniques may further increase recyclability and efficiency of the whole process”. The next steps will require a “wider collaboration with more brand owners and converters and with more input from waste management companies and recyclers across Europe, to finalise and validate the design guidelines for recycling”, he added.