The opaque PET packaging used for microwave meals may be very convenient, but it is not recycled. Until now. Inspired by the urgency of the new PPWR, Fost Plus is responding to producers’ needs by organising a project with Vanheede to test sorting of opaque PET trays.
The European Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) will impose new standards for recycling and the use of recycled materials. PET is currently the only recycled plastic that can be used in food packaging. This means it is all the more important to capture PET packaging and reuse it for new food packaging. However, opaque (non-transparent) PET trays, which contrary to transparent PET trays can be reheated, are mainly used for ready-made meals, have been slipping through this closed loop net.
Sorting technology
Although the blue bag contains five PET material streams, opaque PET trays are not (yet) captured by the technologies currently available in sorting centres, so they end up in residual waste stream. That is unacceptable, of course. Both for Fost Plus, which aims to find a recycling solution for every item of packaging put on the market, and for the companies, which have been paying a high Green Dot rate for this type of packaging, which is actually recyclable but could not be sorted.
This project is the result of a shared aspiration from Fost Plus and its members. We are talking to sorting centres and recycling partners to find the best solution.
The purpose of the project is to find the most efficient way to capture opaque PET trays. The initial approach involves modifying the parameters of sorting machines so as to include these trays in the opaque PET bottle stream. "This approach is being implemented, but it may not be completed until the end of 2025. To avoid wasting time and ensure that we explore every possible avenue, we contacted the Vanheede sorting centre, which currently handles the PMD residual waste stream."
Re-sorting to capture the final materials
The contents of the blue bag are sorted at specialised sorting centres for PMD, resulting in 16 different material streams, including one residual waste stream. The latter comes from a mixture of sorting errors made by the public and process losses. Vanheede re-sorts this waste stream a second time to capture the final recyclable materials. One of the resulting streams is a mixed PET stream consisting of bottles and trays. "This is quite a small stream, since we do successfully capture virtually all the bottles and trays during the initial sorting process at specialised PMD sorting centres. The purpose of the tests is to optimise the parameters of sorting facilities so that opaque PET trays can be added in."
Second stage: recycling
In a second stage, this waste stream goes off for actual recycling. The first bales of material have already left. "We are working with specialist recyclers. There are more challenges because of the composition of this mixed stream. Ideally, we always want to have the purest possible streams, but if you also want to recycle the last item of packaging, you have to think outside the box."
The new regulations and the aspiration from manufacturers have given Fost Plus the impetus to find solutions to ensure that every item of single-use packaging its members put on the market is recycled. These challenges, linked to real limitations, require us to develop and implement solutions to take recycling further in order to preserve and reuse the available resources as effectively as possible.
We explain it all in this video. Watch it to find out more!