AIMPLAS is collaborating with Covinil and Eroski to develop a 100% recyclable flexible skin pack packaging using recycled PET.
Skin packs create an invisible “second skin” around the product that allows consumers to examine its quality while also preserving it.
However, despite their premium product appearance and relatively low cost, skin packs also face difficulties when it comes to recycling due to their multilayer/materials composition.
AIMPLAS says that in Spain, rPET is currently the only plastic material that has been authorised for post-consumer recycled content for food packaging. However, it also says that flexible PET packaging cannot currently be recycled using conventional mechanical technologies because of its multilayer composition.
Through innovations in chemical recycling and polymerization technologies, the project consortium aims to overcome this challenge.
The research project is funded by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities and the European Union through Next Generation funds within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.
The BOTTLE4FLEX Project will focus on promoting solvolysis processes for recycling and modifying the properties of PET through partial depolymerization.
It also seeks to make use of innovative technologies such as reactive extrusion, as well as monomers and additives to increase the flexibility of recycled PET. The goal is to develop efficient, sustainable methods that promote the circularity of plastics and lead to new circular production models.
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