Royal DSM, a Netherlands-based company active in the fields of health, nutrition and materials, has partnered with German plastics manufacturer APK on recycling multilayer food packaging films.
Image: APK’s plant in Merseburg. Photo: courtesy of APK AG.
The new recycling route of APK will help to recycle the products beyond the primary function of reducing food waste.
A combination of PE and PA6 are used in various multilayer barrier films for food packaging.
PE serves as a blockade for moisture and PA6 acts as a barrier for oxygen, expanding the shelf life of the packaged food.
Royal DSM said such packaging cannot be manufactured with a mono-material PE film, as the layer thicknesses for achieving adequate barrier properties would become too high.
The total layer thickness can be decreased significantly with the addition of PA6 in the multi-material solution apart from enhancing the mechanical integrity of the film, leading to less rupture of the films during transportation and logistics.
Royal DSM said it results in a lower food waste percentage and a better carbon footprint in a life cycle analysis.
APK’s Newcycling process technique can be used to address the end-of-life stage of the Life Cycle of a multilayer PE/PA6 packaging film.
The Newcycling process makes it possible to recover high-quality re-granulates with properties close to virgin plastics, from complex mixtures and multi-layer composites. Royal DSM said it is not possible with conventional recycling systems.
APK head of business development Florian Riedl said: “Moreover the Newcycling process works highly cost-efficient and offers a competitive, sustainable material source.
“The re-granulates, generated from multilayer PE/PA6 packaging waste can be used again in demanding flexible packaging which contributes to the target of a circular economy.”
APK is constructing a facility to recycle multilayer PE/PA6 packaging, using Newcycling process, which is due to start up in the fourth quarter of this year.
APK manufactures high-quality plastic recycle reclaimed from post-consumer and production sources. Newcycling enbales the pelletized recyclates to be used in applications like flexible packaging.