Plastic food packaging to be recyclable
Zurich/St.Gallen/Aarau/Luzern - Several research and business partners have joined forces to investigate recyclable food packaging made of polypropylene. Among them are realcycle, the University of St.Gallen, the Plastics Training and Technology Center Aarau and Emmi. Innosuisse is supporting the project.
Zurich-based realcycle GmbH, together with the Plastics Training and Technology Center (KATZ) in Aarau and the Institute for Technology Management at the University of St.Gallen (ITEM-HSG), is researching closed-loop recycling for food packaging made of polypropylene (PP). Business partners BASF Schweiz, Coop in Basel, Emmi in Lucerne, Greiner Packaging in Diepoldsau (canton of St.Gallen), InnoPlastics in Eschlikon (canton of Thurgau), Migros Industrie in Zurich, Silac in Euthal (canton of Schwyz), and Säntis Packaging in Rüthi (canton of St.Gallen) are also participating in the consortium.
The «Development of a closed-loop food-contact rPP» project, which is set to run for 1.5 years, has now been approved by the Swiss Innovation Agency Innosuisse, according to a LinkedIn post by realcycle Managing Director Melanie Haupt. The project partners plan to begin the implementation phase this October.
In the project description, realcycle explains that the project partners will work together to form and experimentally verify «a viable value chain for secondary PP for food packaging». Materials collected by Coop and Migros will be investigated by KATZ and then processed by InnoPlastics to produce regranulate. Based on the specifications of Greiner Packaging, Silac and Säntis Packaging, KATZ and BASF Plastic Additives will then work on the required secondary materials. The desired result is a regranulate that is suitable for food use. The packaging produced by the processors will then be sent to Emmi, where it will be tested for harmful substances and filled. ITEM-HSG will test the packaging’s economic viability.
