CIRCULAR FoodPack worked on solutions to enable the circular use of plastic packaging, focusing on the most sensitive product category: food.

CIRCULAR FoodPack was a consortium of 15 European companies and research institutes. The project aimed to develop recyclable packaging with at least 50% post-consumer recyclates incorporated behind a functional barrier.

Flexible plastic packaging for food is crucial because it has many application advantages which are needed to meet health and safety requirements. Generally, this type of packaging is made up of complex multilayer and multi-material structures. Depending on the requirements of the packaged goods, seven or more layers may be combined in a single film. However, these film structures cannot currently be reliably sorted and efficiently recycled. With two million tons of multilayer composites for food packaging produced each year, the material streams targeted by CIRCULAR FoodPack are significant and so this innovative process is expected to have a huge impact within the EU packaging sector.

CIRCULAR FoodPack produced high-quality recycled polyethylen. It used Sensor-Based-Specification (SBS) and Tracer-Based-Sorting (TBS) processes, deinking and thermally assisted deodorisation, as well as solvent-based and mechanical recycling processes. Innovative designs for recyclable and food-safe mono-material laminates will enable reuse in high-value film applications. This laid the groundwork for a circular economy of food packaging.

The project has now come to an end: see the results here.