Report Offers a Pathway to Producing High-Quality Film From Household Flexible Plastic Waste

A recently released report suggests that higher levels of mechanical recycling, along with chemical recycling, can be scaled to a level that would significantly reduce plastic waste, including flexible packaging. The 34-page report—The Quest for Quality: Scaling Advanced Mechanical Recycling to Meet Recycled Content Targets for Flexibles—provides a technical and economic assessment of a 50,000-ton-per-year advanced mechanical recycling plant. “Rather than competing with each other, advanced mechanical and chemical recycling are highly complementary. Both can produce high-quality recyclates, but each will focus on different fractions of the flexibles waste stream and target different ‘end’ application segments,” says the executive summary of the report. “Chemical recycling will focus notably on multi-material films targeting food contact applications, for example.” The report identifies the conditions needed to scale commercially, according to The Alliance to End Plastic Waste, which produced the report. The Alliance is an independent, global non-profit dedicated to creating a circular economy for plastic. It works with stakeholders across the value chain, including the private sector, governments, other financiers, and NGOs.

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