FRANCE – Global packaging solutions company, Sidel has joined the R-Cycle, committing to drive circular circularity in plastic packaging.
R-Cycle is a community designing digital ‘product passports’ to accelerate the recycling of plastic packaging around the world.
Using an open tracing standard, R-Cycle allows gathering of information about the recycling-related properties of plastic packaging.
These details, stored on a common data platform, can then be automatically accessed and recorded by any production machinery along the value chain, from packaging manufacturers and converters to the recycling industry.
This ultimately enables waste-sorting lines to identify recyclable packaging and so help create recycling-friendly and pure materials for reprocessing into a wide range of high-grade plastic products.
Francesca Bellucci, Sidel’s Sustainability Portfolio Director, Product Innovation and Marketing, says: “Sidel recently joined R-Cycle because we want to continue playing a key role in bringing the circular economy to life.
“Having a global standard that connects partners from around the world across the plastic packaging lifecycle to record and retrieve all relevant packaging properties will hugely benefit product sustainability.
“It will improve manufacturing processes as well as the quality of recyclates, resulting in the implementation of a genuinely circular economy.”
Commenting on the same, Dr. Benedikt Brenken, Director R-Cycle, added: “It is great to see how our community is constantly growing with forward-looking partners from the packaging industry who are uniting their high innovative strength under the R-Cycle flag.
“Sidel is contributing important impetus here and its clear commitment to a functioning circular economy, which will move us forward together.”
Currently, recyclable plastic packaging cannot be separated precisely enough from waste streams to achieve high-quality recycling, and this has been a significant factor in current low recycling rates – only 9% of plastic waste is ultimately recycled, according to OECD, Global Plastics Outlook.
R-Cycle will benefit manufacturers worldwide by improving process efficiency and product quality.
R-Cycle’s globally applicable open tracing standard permits seamless documentation stored on a common data platform that can be accessed by any production facility, from plastic film or injection/blow molding machines to converting, and filling machines, through to waste sorting and recycling lines.
It enables a material’s recycling-related properties to be captured and made retrievable via an appropriate marker such as a digital watermark or QR code on the packaging.
The underlying tracing technology behind R-Cycle is based on GS1 standards – the leading global network for cross-industry process development; it is already being used by various industries worldwide, for example in tracing fresh food products.
Francesca Bellucci concludes: “By connecting all value-added partners along the cycle, R-Cycle is the basis for obtaining high-quality recyclates to establish a working circular economy.”
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