Report by Smithers predicts compound annual growth rate of 3.8% for mono-material plastic packaging films on global market; sees fast growth for polyethylene and polypropylene, slow growth for regenerated cellulose fiber, decline for polyvinyl chloride materials
CEFLEX publishes flexible packaging guidelines
Circular Economy for Flexible Packaging initiative (CEFLEX) releases guidelines focused on polyolefin-based flexible packaging; includes recommendations on article’s size and shape, as well as on materials used, including barrier layers, coatings, inks, adhesives
Report on EU’s flexible films market
Industry association Plastic Recyclers Europe (PRE) publishes market data related to annual production, use, and recycling of flexible plastics in the EU; food packaging sector primarily uses polyolefin films, presence of multi-material films complicates recycling; more infrastructure for collection, separation, recycling needed
Consultation on flexible packaging guidelines
Circular Economy for Flexible Packaging (CEFLEX) initiative calls for comments on polyolefin-based packaging design guidelines; online consultation open until January 17, 2020
Rigid polyolefin recycling capacity in Europe
Plastic Recyclers Europe reports 1.7 million tons of installed recycling capacity for the waste stream, packaging still the largest use
Recyclability protocol for plastic films
Plastics Recyclers Europe’s ‘RecyClass’ project releases testing protocol for evaluating recyclability of polyethylene plastic films
Conference on future of polyolefins
Annual summit on the future of the polyolefins industry to take place on January 16-17, 2019 in Antwerp, Belgium; registration now open
NIAS in polypropylene films
Scientists study migration from food packaging films made of polypropylene; 74 compounds identified, 76% of them NIAS; 35% of samples show migration exceeding either SML or Cramer class-based recommendations
EFSA assesses HDPE and PP recycling process
EFSA’s CEF Panel considers HDPE and PP made from recycling process ‘Morssinkhof Plastics’ suitable for use in food contact articles intended for dry foods, fruits, vegetables and meat under specific conditions
Polyolefin circular economy platform
Plastics industry launches Polyolefin Circular Economy Platform aiming to increase reuse and recycling of polyolefin products; initial focus on packaging