Recycling of Post-Consumer HDPE Bottle Caps into New Caps for Food Contact

HDPE caps are collected together with PET bottles, which have been recycled into new bottles for decades. Due to Deposit Return Schemes, the bottle caps are sorted by type and are suitable to be recycled again for sensitive applications e.g., food contact. While there are evaluation criteria for mechanical PET recycling processes, no such evaluation crite-ria have been published for recycled HDPE caps in food contact. As part of the study, possible evaluation criteria are derived from other polymers or applications and critically discussed. Recycling of post-consumer caps from beverage bottles into new HDPE caps in direct contact with food is realistic even if worst-case considerations on the evaluation criteria are applied. The required cleaning efficiencies are within a range that is technically feasible for today’s mechanical HDPE recycling processes. The evaluation criteria can be used for a preliminary assessment of post-consumer HDPE recyclate in food contact. Based on the evaluation, the recycling of HDPE caps is to be submitted as a novel technology according to Regulation 2022/1616.