Südpack, a German manufacturer of high-performance films and packaging materials for the food, non-food and medical goods industries, devotes more than 50% of its investments to technologies that help to improve sustainability. 30% of its turnover is already generated by sustainable products. Zero Waste is Südpack's major goal. Thus, one goal is to support its customers in closing loops and reducing the consumption of fossil resources.
Südpack considers chemical recycling to be an important and indispensable part for a circular economy in the plastics industry. This is always the case when mechanical recycling reaches its limits despite "Design for Circularity". Chemical recycling can be used to recycle multi-layer materials as well as contaminated and mixed plastics that cannot be recycled by mechanical recycling processes. For food packaging, Südpack believes that the combination of mechanical and chemical recycling processes is an ecologically and economically reasonable alternative. In this way, easily separable plastic fractions can be sorted out using sensors basis and recycled mechanically, whereas other material fractions can be processed into virgin material using chemical recycling.
For this reason, the German company entered into a strategic cooperation with Carboliq, manufacturer of plants for oil recovery from mixed and contaminated plastic wastes, two years ago. Initially, the primary objective was to use the pilot plant to recycle the company's own materials from the production of packaging films. Now the first customer projects are becoming reality.
Arla Foods explores new way to recycle plastic waste
Together with Arla Foods, an international dairy company, Südpack has developed a business model to make maturing bags for mozzarella cheese circular. Using the chemical recycling process, the plastic is kept within the loop and recycled into new packaging instead of being sent to incineration reducing the overall need for fossil feedstock as well as the carbon footprint.
The mozzarella cheese is being produced at Rødkærsbro dairy in Denmark. It needs to mature in specially designed maturing bags for about two weeks. The plastic films need to be multi-layered for food safety reasons, but this also means they cannot be recycled through mechanical recycling which is the industry standard across Europe. Therefore, the only option so far has been to send them to incineration after fulfilling their essential role in the production process.
To achieve a higher grade of recycling and as part of Arla’s commitment to improve circularity and eliminate the use of virgin feedstock, the German company and the farmer-owned dairy cooperative are carrying out a large-scale test using chemical recycling to convert 80 tonnes of plastic waste into new packaging.
Keeping it in the loop
Even if the maturing bags were suitable for mechanical recycling, it wouldn’t be allowed to bring the recyclate into food contact material again. As a result, the films wouldn’t be recycled as new food packaging but downcycled and used for something else and exiting the loop.
Taking into account the loss of electrical and thermal energy from incineration and the negative impact of transporting the films from Denmark to Germany, the calculation behind the test still favours chemical recycling in terms of total carbon emissions. Per ton of plastic waste, full processing including chemical recycling emits up to 50% less than incineration. Südpack and Arla Foods are currently testing with 80 tons of plastic film from Rødkærsbro dairy. After concluding the test, they will evaluate and plan next steps.
