The EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) adopted by the EU Parliament in April 2024 sets, among other things, ambitious minimum targets for the percentage of recyclate in new plastic packaging, raising new challenges for industrial recycling technologies. In order to meet the requirements, a significant increase of the percentage of recyclate in contact-sensitive applications like food and cosmetics packaging is mandatory. Chemical recycling processes provide recyclates that meet the quality requirements of such applications. However, the available capacities are far from sufficient to meet the demand. On the other hand, mechanical recycling, as the most energy and material-efficient plastics recycling process, can provide corresponding quantities, but not in the required recyclate quality. Intensive research into both recycling routes will therefore be crucial for the industry.
The Institute for Plastics Processing (IKV) in Industry and Craft at RWTH Aachen University (IKV) has therefore initiated the industrial research project “LOOPCYCLING - Advanced mechanical recycling of flexible polyethylenes”. The aim is to push the boundaries of mechanical recycling significantly and to achieve the best possible recyclate qualities by consistently combining the best industrial recycling technologies. Based on existing industrial process technologies, the processes will initially be optimised using common polyolefin sorting fractions (DSD310) from the household collection of packaging waste. A transfer to well-designed mono-materials including upscaling is conducted in parallel. The results will be used to derive future design-for-recycling standards.
