The document discusses plastic packaging and the circular economy in Europe. It outlines the EU plastic strategy which aims for all plastic packaging to be reusable or recyclable by 2030 and at least 50% of plastic waste to be recycled. It discusses challenges with recycling different types of plastics and colors. It also discusses bioplastics and how they can contaminate traditional recycling streams if not compostable. The document provides case studies of packaging companies moving towards more circular packaging solutions like reusable, recyclable and mono-material packaging.
2. Content
1. ANL Plastics
2. Facts about plastic
• Image of plastics
• Distribution of plastics
3. EU Plastics strategy
• Circular economy
• A closed-loop vision
• Post consumer waste
4. Carbon black
5. Bioplastics
6. Official labels
7. RPET
8. Case studies
3. Packaging shaping your ideas
ANL PLASTICS
Thermoforming since 1958
Family owned company
350 employees overall
2018 Sales of € 60 million
3 production units throughout Europe
Commercial collaboration with Italian plant Faroplast SRL
Own metallization unit for PET
Vertically integrated
Extrusion
Thermoforming
Tooling
Grinding
Recycling
BRC & Iso 9001 certified
7. BY 2030
EU PLASTICS STRATEGY FOR A CIRCULAR
ECONOMY
• All plastic packaging placed on the EU
market should be reusable or recyclable
• >50% of plastic waste must be recycled
• Ban on certain items of single use plastics
• Sorting & recycling capacity X4 (vs.2015)
• 2025 set as a goal by major players in the
FMCG markets
8. CIRCULAR ECONOMY
• Europe is currently favoring 3 types of mono material Plastic
1. HDPE
2. PET
3. PP
• They don’t promote the use of bioplastics (such as PLA)
pollution of the waste streams in conventional plastic
• Drop-in bioplastics are the most promising but economically uninteresting
9. Remarks
EU PLASTICS STRATEGY FOR A CIRCULAR
ECONOMY
• For foodgrade products the recycling
possibilities are more complicated
• Single use plastics &“on the go” eating trends
• What is the impact (on nature) when all these items
are replaced with other materials?
• Monomaterials are the best solution to obtain
clean recycling materials
10. Different ways to recycle
EU PLASTICS STRATEGY FOR A CIRCULAR
ECONOMY
• Mechanical recycling
• Flakes & regrind
• Limited in use for food security & reductive of the material features
• Post production & post consumer waste
• Current method
• Chemical recycling
• decompose material back to the molecular level
• material properties of virgin material
• infinite applicability
• Post consumer waste
• Method for the future?
• Thermal recycling (WTE)
11. ANL PLASTICS: A CLOSED LOOP
VISION
• Design to recycle & re-use
• Recycle all our production waste for re-use in our own production processes (PET & PP)
• We can use R-PET (PCW) while complying with food safety legislations
• We are committed towards increasing true circularity across the value chain
• We can use biomaterials if requested, but they aren’t favorised in the circular thinking
• We look forward to discuss with our customers how we can help them to become
more circular
12. Post Consumer Waste
• Use of plastic material that has already been on the market
• Material charachteristics (thermoform quality)
• Pricing
• Food safety regulations
• For foodgrade products:
• Food safety must be guaranteed at all times
• Certificates required
• European Commission is still working on this matter
• Safe recycling
• Description of contaminants
• Colour deviations & black dots possible
13. The Difficulty of sorting dark colours
CARBON BLACK
• From technical point of view, black PET is recyclable
• The problem lies with the recycling units. The
installations have problems recognizing the
differents polymers when coloured black
• For plastic processors, black is the best colour to
use recycled content (PIW) in
14. BIOPLASTICS
• Big difference between bio-based &
biodegradable
• Biodegradable plastics:
• Not a solution for litter problem
• Can contaminate the recycling stream in
conventional plastics
• Avoid miscommunication between
biobased/biodegradable/conventional plastics
• Oxo degradable plastics are already forbidden
15. DEFINITION OF BIOPLASTICS
Bio-PE, Bio-
PP, Bio-Pet,
…
PE, PP, PET,
PS, EVOH,
…
PBAT,
PBS,
PVA,
…
PLA, starch,
cellophane,
PHA,…
Non-
compostable
Non-biobased
Compostable
Bioplastics are:
Produced from renewable resources
FOCUS ON RESOURCES
BOTH from renewable
resources and compostable
Compostable plastics
FOCUS ON END-OF-LIFE
Biobased
16. PRODUCTION PROCESS BIOMATERIALS
PACKAGING
BIOPLASTICS: Thermoformed
Packaging
Extrudors
Low MFI
Thermoformers
Low elasticity modulus
High thermoformability
Functionalities?
Purpose? Protect against what?
Requirements?Rigidity? Shock
resistance?
Conditions? Max. and min.
temperature, humidity ?
It’s clear that some of the bio-
materials are very sensitive to
certain conditions in comparison
with traditional plastics
What is important? Biobased
or biodegradable?
Why Choose a biomaterial?
Must haves vs. Nice to haves
17. Current European Vision
BIOPLASTICS
• Bioplastics are not favourite because of the possibility of contamination
• However, the European Commission is working on the elaboration of regulations
for the labelling of bio-based plastics
• Biodegradable packaging is included in EU recycling targets
19. Biodegradable
OFFICIAL LABELS (EU)
The definitions for industrially compostable materials differ slightly across
regions (EN13432 for Europe, ASTM D400 and D6868 for the US). A material is
in essence industrially compostable if it meets the following four criteria:
• Chemical characteristics: it contains at least 50% organic matter (based on
dry weight) and does not exceed a given concentration for some heavy metals.
• Biodegradation: it biodegrades by at least 90% (by weight) within six months
under controlled composting conditions (temperature of 58 +/- 2°C).
• Disintegration: it fragments into pieces smaller than 2 mm under controlled
composting conditions within 12 weeks.
• Ecotoxicity: the compost obtained at the end of the process does not cause
any negative effects (which could be measured, for example, by the effect on
germination and growth of plants)
20. ME, MYSELF & THE ENVIRONMENT
Market is demanding fully
recycled or recyclable packaging
• Up to 80% * recycled
content in your packaging
• 100% recyclable packaging
(mono layer PET)
* ABA structure with virgin top layers due to technical reasons
RPET
21. All necessary material tests
done according to EU
regulations
Use of a functional barrier for
foodgrade packaging
SSP treatment on all
externally sourced PET
material
FOOD SAFETY
RPET
22. ZERO IMPACT PACKAGING
Transparant material with recycled
look & feel
• Colour deviations may occur due
to the previous life of the material
• Tiny black dots can appear
Externally sourced recycable material
• PCW from PET bottles & trays
• PIW from PET preform bottles
RPET
24. Organisations
CASE STUDIES
• New plastics economy
• Eliminate problematic (multilayer) or
unnecessary plastic
• Move to reuse models were relevant
• 100% of the packaging must be
recyclable, reusable or compostable
• 2025 as target
• The new plastics pact
• Bonus:
• Reduction of weight in the same material (2%) and
same functionalities
• Refill option
• Reduction of the packaging units per UVC
• From multi-material to mono-material
• Avoid carbon black as a colouring agent
• 8% reduction for rigid packaging in monomaterial
PET/PP/HDPE
• Malus:
• Malus for packaging in opaque PET with mineral
substances > 4%
25. What Retailers are already saying
CASE STUDIES
• Ban on materials such as:
• PVC
• PS
• Oxo degradable materials
• PLA (bioplastic)
• Industrial compostable
material
Towards monomaterials PET & PP
• For their Private Labels:
• All packaging reusable,
recyclable or home
compostable
• No more black plastic by 2019
• No EPS, PVC or PLA
• Fully recyclable packaging:
recycling or composting
• 100% recyclable packaging
• Replace all PS by translucent PET
• Printing with vegetable based ink
26. What the Brands are already saying
CASE STUDIES
• To move away from black
• Partnerships for worldwide recycling
• Zero-net waste policy
• Fully recyclable
• Sustainable sourced
• Bottles:
• In recycled or bio-plastic
• Towards 100% bio-PET
• Yoghurt cups:
• Replace all PS cups by
monomaterial
• Investing in chemical recycling
27. www.anl-plastics.com
packaging shaping your ideas
ANL Plastics NV
Hertenstraat 32
3830 Wellen
ANL Plastics Poland
UI. Rozdzienskiego 12
41-306 Dabrowa Gornicza
ANL Plastics France
Parc d’Activités de Cahors Sud, Zone de la crozette
120 Allée du Cap- 46090 LE MONTAT