ALPLA has revealed it is piloting a solvent-based process for food-safe recycled HDPE material in collaboration with independent technological institute NTCP, at a plant in Heerenveen, Netherlands.
Funded by the Dutch Ministry of Climate Policy and Green Growth, the project will run for four years. The companies aim to scale up the solution to industrial production by the start of the PPWR 2030, which will require packaging in the EU to contain a minimum proportion of recycled material.
According to ALPLA, the patented recycling technology is expected to deliver food-safe HDPE recycled material (rHDPE) on an industrial scale for the first time. Following several years of R&D with successful laboratory results, the two project partners have begun evaluating the solvent-based process at the NTCP site in Heerenveen.
Intensive testing of all process steps of the technology will be performed as part of the project. The companies hope to obtain approval from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in the near future, with the construction and operation of the pilot plant providing ‘valuable insights’ for scaling up the process. ALPLA states it has set up its own recycling company in the Netherlands for this purpose.
Coexpan and Eslava Plásticos teamed in October to decontaminate post-consumer polystyrene and recycle it into food-grade packaging, closing the loop on formats like yoghurt cups. The companies utilize a jointly developed decontamination technology, currently in an advanced validation stage, to turn used polystyrene packaging into recycled raw materials.
The following month, cleaning brand Smol announced its new range of refillable bottles made from 100% recycled aluminium, aiming to reduce single-use plastic and unnecessary waste for customers. The bottles have been designed to work with Smol’s existing pumps and triggers, helping to reduce unnecessary waste.
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