Trends

Trends Commentary | Recyclability - Part 5: Packaging in focus

Trends

Advanced Materials

Did you know that 86% of consumers under age 45 say they would pay more for sustainable packaging? As we all become more aware of our carbon footprints, consumers are increasingly looking for brands that can help them reduce it. They want your product, but they want it in packaging they can recycle.

The biggest challenge for recyclability comes from multi-layer packaging. The search for alternatives with all the right properties to balance performance and sustainability is ongoing. The good news is: Significant progress is being made with more and more solutions becoming available.

The challenge of multi-layer packaging

Flexible plastic packaging is commonly made using multi-layer structures made from multiple materials. This helps optimise performance, versatility, and cost. But, with each layer made from a different material and bonded together, separating them for recycling becomes difficult and time consuming.

Whether you’re using extrusion or injection moulding, there’s always a way to adapt the polymers you use to make your existing packaging more easily recyclable. With recyclability as a target, our focus here is on redesigning packaging structures to make them more sustainable, investigating new polymers that best suit your product and existing recycling streams, and adapting your production processes accordingly.

Woman in a green sweater eating salad outdoors with eco-friendly packaging.

Adapt to recyclability by choosing the right polymer

The first step is identifying the right polymer for your needs. For example, ABS and styrene materials are commonly used in cosmetic packaging for their mechanical properties. As complex materials, reprocessing can be challenging due to their composition. And the quality of recycled ABS may not be as high as virgin ABS due to degradation during recycling.

Many brands are opting for new polymers, like copolyesters. In some cases, these can feed into standard PET recycling streams, ensuring an improved end-of-life. Manufacturers are also exploring options for mono-layer packaging to enhance recyclability, such as paper-based packaging, bio-based plastics, and compostable materials.

Another important consideration when choosing polymers, is the evolving state of regulation by governments around the world. For example, in France, packaging that uses non-recyclable polymers or styrene materials will be banned in 2025.

Creating multiple layers with mono-materials

Mono-material packaging can also be composed of several layers, but they’re all from the same family of materials. So, it can be recycled without separating the bonded layers.

Multi-material films provide unique barrier properties that can be difficult to recreate with mono-materials while retaining all required properties. But, in the shift towards sustainable packaging, some converters and brands are working on new mono-material structures to do just that.

While regulations vary between regions, mono-material packaging generally includes 95% of a single polymer (based on Ceflex guidelines). Demand is growing for additives and barrier coatings to achieve this goal.

One such example is the redesign of structures using PA/EVOH/PA to obtain oxygen barrier properties. It can then be recycled in a PE waste stream as the EVOH does not need a compatibiliser to run again on the PE stream. In this case, though, some extra drying equipment may be needed to prevent the EVOH capturing moisture.

If PA and EVOH are needed, the use of compatibilisers, such as maleic anhydride grafted polymers, can be used in a PE waste stream allowing the multi-layer structure to be recycled.

Understanding recycling processes

Close-up of colorful plastic flakes being processed through a metal machine with a spiraled interior, showcasing the recycling process.

The big question when designing sustainable packaging is how it will be reprocessed after use. Knowing how it will be recycled helps in the designation of packaging properties to determine what changes can be made without sacrificing product quality.

Mechanical recycling processes plastic waste into secondary raw material or products without significantly changing its chemical structure. It currently represents over 99% of recycling quantities in Europe. In principle, all types of thermoplastics can be mechanically recycled with little or no quality impairment. However, if the same polymer is recycled twice, it begins to lose some mechanical properties and overall quality drops.

Chemical recycling can handle a broader range of plastics, including mixed or contaminated plastics. It breaks down polymers through chemical processes, so they can be used as feedstock to produce new materials with the same mechanical properties as the initial virgin product. Examples of suitable streams include laminated and composite plastics, low-quality mixed plastics, and contaminated plastics.

Chemical recycling relies on the mass-balance approach to track and allocate the input of recycled content. This measures the amount of circular and bio-based feedstocks at various points in the production process and segregates it in bookkeeping. One major advantage of this approach is the ability to make credible claims. As the share of circular feedstocks in the production process increases, it can be attributed on an equivalent basis to specific outputs.

Both mechanical and chemical recycling clearly have a role to play. While mechanical recycling needs to be optimised, the future of recyclability lies in chemical recycling and its far-reaching benefits.

IMCD case study: Adapting to recycled content

Challenge: After incorporating recycled content, our client (a manufacturer of garbage bags) found an increase in black specks and carbon build-up on their machinery. Where they used to stop production to clean equipment every two years, they were now stopping to clean three times a year.

Solution: Our experts identified a material that could lengthen the time between cleanings and be used immediately when black specks begin to appear. Specialised procedures and a custom maintenance plan were laid out using Asaclean™ U grade.

Results: One-hour maintenance purges every two weeks stopped most mid-run contamination issues. And the need for 24-hour cleaning every four months was eliminated.

Your partner for packaging

IMCD Advanced Materials offers a wide range of polymer packaging and film solutions — from copolyesters to tie resins and functional additives.

Our technical experts are here to help reimagine solutions together. It’s about understanding your needs and providing the resources and support needed to empower you with all the insights you need for confident material selection.