Mondelēz, PepsiCo, Pladis trial digital watermarks for flexible packaging sorting

BELGIUM – Mondelēz International, PepsiCo and pladis have joined a nationwide Belgian pilot to test whether invisible digital watermarks can enable sorting facilities to distinguish food-contact flexible packaging from non-food materials.

The trial comes as the industry prepares for the PPWR’s 10% recycled content mandate for contact-sensitive packaging by 2030.

The HolyGrail 2030 trial, coordinated by AIM – European Brands Association, will assess how Digimarc watermarks perform on wrappers, films and other plastic food packaging collected through Belgium’s household recycling system. 

If sorting equipment can determine whether a pack previously contained food, the method could allow more precise recycling flows and provide evidence on what would be required for wider adoption. 

Fost Plus, responsible for Belgium’s packaging waste recycling, is running the sorting trials, with sorted film bales transported to Hündgen Entsorgungs’ facility in Germany where high-resolution cameras from Pellenc ST will detect the watermarks. 

How Digital Watermarks Work and Why They Matter for Food-Grade Recycling

A digital watermark is an imperceptible code applied across the packaging surface during printing, which can be read by specialist sorting equipment to identify material type and whether the packaging was used for food. 

This distinction is critical because recycled plastic intended for new food packaging must meet stringent safety and traceability requirements, and current recycling systems cannot differentiate between food and non-food flexible packaging. 

The trial comes as the EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation introduces recycled content requirements for plastic food packaging from 2030, including a 10% minimum for contact-sensitive packaging. 

Richard Akkermans, European R&D Packaging Manager at Mondelēz, stated that HolyGrail 2030 is a pivotal cross-industry initiative for better sorting and recycling of flexible packaging, adding that this market demonstration aims to provide the real-life technical learning needed to increase the availability of recycled plastic.

Industry Collaboration and Real-World Testing

Russell Avens, Director of Breakthrough Packaging at pladis, noted that snack packaging protects product quality and helps reduce waste, but the challenge is ensuring it can be identified, sorted and returned to use at scale. 

Dominika Maruszak-Dankbaar, Senior Packaging Sustainability Manager at PepsiCo, emphasised that flexible plastic packaging remains one of the more complex areas of packaging circularity, and progress will require collaboration across the entire value chain.

The pilot is the first national-scale trial in Europe involving flexible post-consumer packaging collected through a household recycling system, moving testing from evidence-gathering into commercial reality.

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