Sidel is now a member of R-Cycle, 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.
Said Francesca Bellucci, Sustainability Portfolio Director, Product Innovation and Marketing, Sidel: “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.”
Added Dr. Benedikt Brenken, Director R-Cycle: “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.
There are two acknowledged barriers to effective plastics recycling. One is creating more fully recyclable packaging, an area in which Sidel is helping customers advance by fostering PET adoption, the most recycled plastic material available to date. The other is in increasing the sophistication of the recycling processes, which is R-Cycle’s key focus.
R-Cycle will benefit manufacturers worldwide by improving process efficiency and product quality. Having precise information about source materials helps speed up production, and recording product properties adds value for their customers. For more visit sidel.com
