Together with its partners Recenso and Count, Südpack hopes that its newly-launched chemical recycling project will allow it to demonstrate that reusable materials generated during the production of films are not waste, but can be a valuable resource instead.
The goal of the strategic collaboration is to take reusable materials that cannot currently be mechanically recycled and recycle them on an industrial scale using the CARBOLIQ process to recover raw materials and consequently close further loops in the packaging industry.
Giving some background on the project, Südpack hopes that it will make it possible to take multilayer, mixed or contaminated film composites that cannot be mechanically recycled and extract new, high-quality base chemicals in a way that conserves resources.
The plastics that are recovered may, Südpack says, then be suitable for producing high-performance films, which can be used to package demanding products with high quality and hygiene standards, for example in the food industry.
With its investment in collaboration with Recenso, a specialist in resource recovery, Südpack hopes to achieve its long-term objective of further developing the technology of chemical recycling and establishing the process as an additional recycling alternative in the market.
“Here at Südpack, we are very much aware of our ecological and social responsibility – and feel responsible for the entire life cycle of our packaging materials,” says Südpack partner Johannes Remmele.
“It is therefore of the utmost importance to us to ensure that these materials are meaningfully recycled after their service life – and to make a pioneering contribution to a circular economy as well as to decarbonization and CO2 reduction.”
“Chemical recycling is an expedient approach in our view – and the mass balance method that has now been accepted by end consumers in the energy sector is a feasible approach for utilizing products from chemical recycling as raw materials in industrial plastics processing,” concludes Johannes Remmele.
