The joint journey towards sustainable packaging

Advanced recycling company APK AG and Finnish packaging specialist Huhtamaki Flexibles Packaging Europe have joined together to develop a laminate tube packaging incorporating recycled material with the quality required for, among others, cosmetics packaging. Sustainable Plastics spoke with Jakob Settele, of Huhtamaki Flexibles Packaging Europe and Florian Riedl, of APK AG, on the challenges and progress made to date.

The year 2025 is approaching fast. It is a year with special meaning for the packaging industry: the year when a great many packaging suppliers, brand owners and major corporations will be called on to make good on their pledges regarding plastic packaging and the circular economy. Major players in the industry have undertaken to reduce the use of virgin plastics, both by increasing the amount of recycled content used and by better design: creating their packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable so that it can stay in the circular economy.

“The big urgency is mainly heard from the multinational brand owners, as various commitments were made at a stage when not all necessary information in terms of quality requirements and compliance was available,” said Jakob Settele, sales manager at Huhtamaki Flexible Packaging. ”The successful creation of a packaging material that contains a particular amount of recycled content by 2025 will be a complicated task for some products, but we are obviously working tremendously hard to advance this development.”

Huhtamaki, like other packaging producers, is therefore facing an enormous challenge, he said. “Not only do we need to integrate recycled content into our solutions, but we must also successfully apply design for recycling ,” said Settele. “Our cooperation with APK is a great start.”

Suitable for packaging

Huhtamaki was searching for a partner with a technology that would enable it within the short term to incorporate recycled content into one of the packaging materials in their portfolio - in this case, tube laminates. APK was not only able to come up with a suitable material, but also to provide the required quality and quantities for Huhtamaki to implement in tube laminates, said Settele.

APK’s Newcycling facility in Merseburg, Germany, valorises post-industrial multi-polymer, multi-layer plastic waste via a dissolution recycling process at industrial-scale. The plant, which has been online since June 2019, features an annual capacity of 8,000 t/a. The mixed input material - 70% LDPE and 30% PA - is transformed into high-purity recyclates.

“From the start, our aim has not been to produce recyclate for those market segments that have already been integrating recyclates into their products for the past twenty years – applications like furniture, park benches or landscaping,” said Florian Riedl, Director Business Development at APK AG. “With our LDPE recyclates, we are currently focusing on packaging segments such as non-food and cosmetic packaging and in the longer-term also food packaging. We specifically produce a quality recyclate that is suitable as an alternative to virgin material and have in fact been producing LDPE for use in packaging applications for nearly two years already. So we are very happy about the cooperation with Huhtamaki – especially as in Huhtamaki, we have found a partner who has introduced a new approach and a new application with its tube laminates.”

Riedl explained that there were two important points to keep in mind when integrating recycled material into a complicated application like tube laminate. One is function, which refers to the mechanical properties of the material itself: it must not flake or otherwise fail. The second is the filling good, or, in other words, the product inside the packaging, which in this specific case would be cosmetics.

APK’s recyclate material meets both the physical and the filling good requirements, said Riedl, something that doesn’t often happen.

In 2020, its Mersalen LDPE NCY, the name under which APK’s LDPE recyclate is sold, first underwent a comprehensive migration analysis, which confirmed its purity level to be ‘decisively higher’ than recyclates from standard mechanical recycling. Then, two human toxicological risk evaluations were performed by two independent toxicology experts. The purpose was to evaluate the use of APK’s LDPE recyclate types in both flexible and rigid  packaging applications for cosmetics and in personal hygiene products. Both these evaluations concluded that the recyclates could indeed be safely be used for these applications and that they met all mandatory legal requirements.

“Our Newcycling technology produces very pure, homogenous LDPE, good quality recyclate and we were very proud when this was confirmed by these expert assessments,” Riedl said.

How does the Newcycling technology work?

The Newcycling dissolution technology developed by APK falls into the category of physical, solvent-based recycling to which innovative process steps have been added, supplementing the  mechanical pre-treatment steps which have been done for the past 20-30 years, i.e. sorting, washing, shredding. It is sometimes misinterpreted as chemical recycling, a technology generating increasing interest from the industry and comprising a class of recycling processes in which the polymer chains are broken down into smaller entities – into monomers and other chemical base units. From these monomers, new polymers can be built.

“The big difference with chemical recycling is that, instead of breaking down the polymer chain, we keep it intact. With our solvent we can select and selectively dissolve the polymer that we want, and we have good control over the SOI substances and everything else that is not allowed to be used in cosmetics packaging,” explained Riedl. “In this way, we can extract precisely the polymer we are targeting from a  mix of multilayers or other mixed plastics, obtaining highly pure LDPE that can be returned into packaging.”

Obviously, chemical recycling yields high-quality, pure materials as well. However, the process is far more energy intensive, as both depolymerisation and reconstructing the polymer cost energy.

“It’s the reason we have a quite positive LCA, which means that applications using our material have a minimal CO2 footprint. Plus, it can replace the use of virgin material,” he added.

The input for the Merseburg Newcycling production line  currently consists of post-industrial multi-layer films. It is a true waste stream – these are PE/PA multi-layered non-recyclable films that would otherwise be incinerated. The Newcycling solvent-based process separates these into PA and LDPE. Both products are subsequently sold by APK.

“It’s a one-step solvent process,” explained Riedl. “What we do is dissolve the LDPE. Everything that is not LDPE – including the PA - remains solid. Suppose you were to have three polymers, for example LDPE, PP and PA. You would then need a two-step approach, where first the LDPE could be dissolved, then the PP, while the PA could remain solid. That’s possible, but it’s not something we do in our existing production line. Theoretically, the dissolving stage can be repeated  again and again, but it is a question of economics: what makes sense? The one-step solvent approach is the easiest and works perfectly to separate two polymers.”

The technology has the added advantage of coming under the definition of recycling, as this has been transposed into the national legislation of, among other EU member states, Germany. This is not the cases for all types of chemical recycling. What this means is that the recycled material from the Newcycling will count as recycled content against the EU plastics strategy target for 2025.

“In Germany, we call it material recycling, meaning it’s a recycling process that keeps the material intact – which is what our process does. Mechanical recycling is also a kind of material recycling. That said, mechanical recycling is the only process that has been standardized up to now. Our process is different from mechanical recycling, so we still need to develop standards in order to develop a sound basis for market growth,” said Riedl.

Challenges

For Huhtamaki, these were all benefits that weighed in the decision to partner with APK.

The two major challenges right now are, on the one hand, meeting the quality requirements of the market and on the other, meeting the ongoing regulatory requirements, according to Jakob Settele.

When integrating recycled content into tube laminates, the optics can change due to the fact that the laminate surface changes. How this affects the regulatory requirements remains to be seen.

“In the past, using standard virgin material, we had obtained food approval for nearly 100% of our packaging material. Now, food compliance might be slightly over-engineered for certain cosmetic applications. But on the other hand, there are still regulatory requirements that must be met,” he emphasised. “The next big task is to assess what requirements are really necessary for the filling good itself. The fact that APK has conducted the risk assessment and confirmed that the resins produced and integrated in our tube laminates are suitable for cosmetic applications is a big step forward.”

The discussion is basically about whether and the extent to which a less smooth surface – or any other imperfection resulting from incorporating recycled content into the tube laminate structure - is an issue. If using recycled content in packaging material is prioritised, some variation in the optics or haptics of a tube might be acceptable to brand owners and end customers, he added. “But of paramount importance is of course ensuring that packaging is safe for the filling goods.

And much has changed in the three years since APK’s first sample materials were offered to customers for cosmetics applications, Riedl confirmed.

“Back then, all the brand owners immediately responded with a demand for food-contact approved materials. Recycled polyolefins, however, are not approved for food contact, which means that brand owners have had to reconsider this position and to reveal more about the exact requirements to be met. As Settele pointed out, they are now more open to discussion. After all, the strict regulations that apply to food do not actually apply to cosmetics. But in the past, food-contact approved virgin materials tended to be used simply to be on the safe side. Now that we can offer a recyclate that is approved for cosmetic applications,  makes the discussion easier.”

Making it official

Huhtamaki has now successfully produced a plastic barrier laminate (PBL) with a total thickness of 300 microns for the production of laminated tubes containing 19% LDPE recyclate material produced by APK.

“This is, of course, only the beginning,” said Settele. “Late last December, we received official RecyClass approvals for three of our tube laminate structures, including our standard PBL 300 micron total thickness, the laminate which was the basis for the development together with APK. This positive approval led to the decision to proceed to the second certification round, in which the PBL made with post-industrial recyclate from APK will be assessed. Once we obtain RecyClass approval for that, we will have taken another big step forward: we will be able to integrate recycled content into an officially certified recyclable flexible packaging.”

Huhtamaki is confident that approval will be obtained as the original structure and the structure containing the recycled material from APK are identical in terms of functionality.

“The only difference with the standard PBL is that we have replaced the outer PE film layer with a PE film layer containing post-industrial recyclate,” explained Settele.

Brand owners cannot afford to run any risk, added Riedl. Many are just now starting their first projects with recycled polyolefins. “They have far more experience in this area with PET, which they have been using for several years and where there is a clean bottle stream available, but especially for LDPE, the first commercial projects are only just coming on the market.”

What about the demand for monomaterial structures – is that an issue that Huhtamaki has run up against?

Settele: The big discussion is, what is a monomaterial structure? Most product applications still need a barrier layer. Our standard PLB 300 has 15 microns of EVOH; but having obtained RecyClass approval for this tube, we have now the official certificate that these 15 microns of EVOH do not disturb the HDPE recycling process.”

The RecyClass test was a rigorous one, he said, which involved putting 10-20 kg of ready-made tubes -  laminate with shoulder, cap and print -  through a realistic existing HDPE recycling process. Afterwards, new products were produced from the recyclate derived from the recycled tubes.  In other words, the tests examined both whether the tubes disturbed the recycling process and whether HDPE bottles could be produced from the resins produced.

“So this was different from various other recycling certificates - also available on the market - which only conduct theoretical assessments,” Settele pointed out.

“We are proud to have been granted them, because they might be the most complicated ones to achieve.”

What’s next?

One of the next big goals for APK will be to use its technology to process post-consumer, as well as post-industrial, waste. Plans for a second plant, which will use 100% post-consumer waste, are currently already in the basic engineering phase. This plant will be built at an undisclosed location – ‘somewhere in Europe’ – and is expected to come online in the next few years.

To bridge the gap between now and when the new plant goes live, APK is working on a compound solution that is a mix of post-industrial and post-consumer based recyclate. There is a clearly felt demand from the market for post-consumer recycled material, which APK is anxious to supply in high quality close to virgin, especially as more competition is starting to enter the market.

The new factory, although based on the same patents and the same technology, will differ in a number of important respects from APK’s existing plant.

“One big development in the second plant will be that we will move from a separation process more to an extraction and purification process. Unlike PIR, which is a clean waste stream, post-consumer streams contain contaminated printed and non-printed waste mixed together. Using an extraction and purification process will enable us to extract colour pigments, inks and other additives,” said Riedl.

He added that a pre-cleaning step would also be part of the process. Post-consumer waste is full of organics, paper and other things, making pre-washing and pre-cleaning essential. APK will use a hot washing process, rather than the cold wash used by mechanical recyclers today.

The plant itself will have a capacity of around 20.000 t/a  in order to meet market demand

“We knew three years ago, when we were building our existing plant, that a second plant would follow, and that this second plant would, from the start, process post-consumer waste,” said Riedl.

Looking ahead, given the technological developments, and in view of research and development efforts, APK is moreover hopeful of obtaining approval for food contact applications in the mid-term. For his PCR products this could be by 2025 , shortly after the new post-consumer waste plant has come online. Food contact approval for recyclates derived from post-industrial waste sources could well be obtained even before 2025.

As Riedl emphasised: “This is our journey and we appreciate very much the opportunity  to ‘travel’ together with  Huhtamaki and other strong partners from all over the value chain to achieve true circularity for a growing number of plastic packaging segments. “

Also for Huhtamaki, the development of tube laminates incorporating recycled material is only the start. Ultimately, the company aims to integrate recycled content into all the flexible packaging in their portfolio, as well as to increase the percentage of recycled content used.

The company is currently focusing this development on two market segments. The first is cosmetics, the second, industrial applications. “Oral care is another very interesting field, but this will be developed at a later stage due to current challenges in matching regulatory requirements,” said Settele.

He continued: “What we see as really important is the need for regular and comprehensive flow of communication between all the parties involved. This will be crucial in overcoming the remaining challenges. In the past, there were often steps involved between us and the brand owners. Today, it is very important to have good communication lines from the resin suppliers all the way to the end customers; that all involved parties are speaking the same language and know what is going on in the market. We are all working towards the same goal.”