Guidelines on Design for Recycling

Based on semi-industrial trials with tracer-based sorting and de-inking of laminated printed PE-based flexible packaging, the CIRCULAR FoodPack project has distilled Design for Recycling guidance for this specific circularity route. This guidance is complimentary to existing guidelines on (printing on) PE flexibles. The EU-funded project CIRCULAR FoodPack comprises different loops, demonstrating the circular use of plastic packaging material. One of those loops (so-called Loop 3) aims for the circularity of PE-based mono-material food-grade packaging items, running two cycles of packaging production, sorting, and recycling. First, PE-based mono-material laminates and pouches are produced by AMCOR and NESTLE, respectively. During the lamination process, tracers provided by Polysecure are integrated into the food packaging items as part of the printing ink. This artificially produced household flexible packaging waste material is then mixed with the real household waste from Poitiers, France, provided by SUEZ. Tracer-Based-Sorting (TBS), a process developed by Polysecure, serves as the sorting protocol and takes place at the Steinert Technical Center in Pulheim, Cologne, Germany. After TBS, the materials are de-inked/delaminated and recycled into new films, which is evaluated in other deliverables. In this deliverable, CIRCULAR FoodPack aims to provide a practical guideline to support industry towards the future implementation of new technologies like TBS, de-inking and delamination in accordance with recyclability. Furthermore, it contains some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) and key learnings from the trials. Note: This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101003806.