Page 16 - Packaging News magazine July-August 2022

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SUSTAINABILITY | www.packagingnews.com.au | July – August 2022
...to reframe the science and basic assumptions that regulatory bodies are reliant on, could be a lifeline for food-grade recycled resins...” — Prof Ed Kosior
assumptions that regulatory bodies are reliant on, could be a lifeline for food-grade recycled resins and an added incentive to reduce the produc- tion of virgin plastics.
As it stands, EFSA’s vital constraints on meeting food contact conditions are highly conservative compared with similar standards set by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the USA. Thankfully, cutting-edge advances in recycling technology, including state-of-the-art decon- tamination, now make specialised recycling processes highly effective in delivering “super-cleaned” recycled plastics such as PET, HDPE and PP.
NEW GUIDELINES FOR CIRCULAR RECYCLING
Following NEXTLOOPP’s trials it is now aggregating numerous examples of products into an impressive cata- logue of results to demonstrate the suitability of the project’s FgrPP – PPristine – and INRT resins.
Whilst these in-depth trial findings show that the process of creating food- grade recycled PP is highly feasible, they also highlight the fact that the recycling process is still more com- plex than it needs to be due to many current packaging design features. As a consequence, NEXTLOOPP is now working in conjunction with indus- try bodies to advise on new design guidelines for Food-Grade Circular Recycling which must become the new standard for packaging design.
NEXT GENERATION CIRCULAR RECYCLING TECHNOLOGY
Certainly there is a raft of new gen- eration technology that recyclers will soon have at their fingertips.
From fluorescent markers, artificial intelligence and decontamination techniques to game-changing tech- nology to recycle polyolefin (LDPE, LLDPE, HDPE, PP) films, which are commonly used for packaging both edible and non-edible goods.
These films, which play a key role in protecting and extending the shelf life of many foods, are currently miss- ing from the recycling stream as, to date, there has been no effective decontamination technology to turn them back into food-grade films.
COtooCLEAN is yet another Nextek multi-participant project that aims to fill this gap with a unique commer- cial process that can be integrated into mechanical recycling operations. This innovative process is based on super-critical CO2 (scCO2) combined with green co-solvents to remove oils, fats and printing inks in one single step, thereby effectively decontami- nating polyolefin films back to food contact levels.
EASING THE REGULATORY BOTTLENECK
As the 2030 deadlines loom for mandates and sustain- ability related pledges, not to mention for the planet itself, companies need to be able to source an abundance of high-quality food-grade recycled resins. Currently, this supply is very limited and we are confident the emerging new technologies will help ease the regulatory bottleneck.
If we are to cap the produc- tion of virgin plastic without dramatically boosting our
BELOW: Some of the first tubs produced using NEXTLOOPP’s 30% food-grade recycled PP.
recycling capacity, we may find our- selves staring down another gun barrel with an equally high carbon footprint. Examples include waste- to-energy with its concerning levels of CO2e or chemical recycling, which in time will play a role in reducing our mixed and complex waste, but is still a long way from scaling up and, in the meantime, still tips our carbon foot- print in the wrong direction.
Diverting plastics to either of these solutions, in effect, is wasting the material when we have far more impactful uses for post consumer plastics that have a much smaller car- bon footprint.
So, while it is true that invest- ment is needed across the board, from collection systems to recycling capabilities to increase the global supply of recyclates to reach indus- try targets, equally vital is the review of the criteria around food safety regulations, which now has the opportunity to revitalise the entire recycling industry.
In the long run, reducing the pro- duction of new plastics will go a long way to increasing the value of plas- tics, boosting efforts to curb plastic pollution and promoting our tran- sition to a circular and sustainable economy. However, for maximum impact our efforts need to be coherent and co-ordinated across the entire plastics ecosystem. ■