Leading companies in the plastics and recycling industry have banded together to form a cross-industry coalition to improve the quality of recovered packaging film.
The partner companies involved – Maag (packaging production), Taghleef Industries (PP film), Henkel (laminating adhesives), and Huber Group (printing ink) – have succeeded in designing a printed barrier composite film on a PP basis by modifying their input materials. This solution enables a new level of granulate quality in the recycling process.
Properties comparable to virgin material
The influence of printing ink and adhesive has been reduced to a minimum, so that a variety of material properties of the regranulate can be compared to those of virgin material.
(Re)use in injection molding
The company coalition also reports a promising, innovative approach to the frequently debated pressing issue of the minimum recyclate content in plastic products: Machines are currently being tested by project partner Graf Plastics (injection molding) with the aim of using quality-optimised recycled packaging materials on a large scale in the future.
High demand for polypropylene recyclate
The background: quality-optimised plastic packaging made of polypropylene can be used as a so-called single-material solution for most horizontal and vertical product packaging, instead of the previously used mixed composites, and can be mechanically recycled. Since at the same time also a wide demand for polypropylene recyclate exists, e.g. in injection molding or the automotive segment, this type of plastic offers an integrated solution both as packaging material and in connected fields of use.
Open Cycle Possible
The environmental objective of establishing an open cycle of disposable plastic packaging in durable products by 2030 has thus been achieved in both a practicable and timely manner.
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