Food-grade PP recycling moves closer, says WRAP

By Mike Stones

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags Recycling

The ability to recycle food-grade polypropelyne (PP) is moving closer to reality, according to the UK government-funded Waste Resources Action Programme (WRAP).

The organisation is aiming to reduce dependence on virgin PP in the manufacture of food packaging and divert waste from landfill while boosting the UK market for recycled PP.

Although it has been possible to clean the PP for use in certain food grade applications, the inability to clean for lower volatility contaminants is blocking progress.

Paul Davidson, WRAP’s head of sector specialists, told FoodProductionDaily.com: “WRAP is continuing this project in a second stage looking at improving the cleaning efficiency of heavier contaminants and investigating ink removal from used PP packaging. Results are due to be published in early spring​.”

Plastics application

PP can be recycled back into industry plastics applications, such as buckets and pallets but so far recycling it into food grade packaging has not been possible. A large tonnage of PP is sent aboard due to higher export prices.

“WRAP is committed to working with partners to achieve food grade PP​,” said Davidson.

This has been technically challenging to date but I believe a huge amount has been learned that will benefit the industry going forward. We always knew this project would come up against hurdles, as it has never been attempted before. But the global benefits if we can crack it, and I believe we can, are huge​,” he added.

The ability to recycle food-grade PP would signal a revolution in the reuse of PP, similar to that of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) milk bottles a decade ago, according to the organisation.

Meanwhile, studies have revealed that food-grade recycled PP can be both thermoformed and injection moulded and so is suitable for use in the common PP conversion processes.

An important step in bringing recycled food-grade PP to realty will be industry investment to identify automated sorting processes.

One of the key barriers going forward is to achieve a viable automated process needs to be developed to sort food contact from non-food contact as hand sorting of food contact is not cost effective,”​ said Davidson.

Low volatility

Also WRAP intends, in partnership with industry, to test alternative technologies to determine if contaminants with low volatility can be removed effectively to extend the range of food grade applications. PP is the third most common polymer found in household waste in the UK after HDPE and PET.

Unlike milk and drink bottles, PP packaging is used in many different grades and colours making it difficult to achieve EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) standards. Coupled with attractive PP export prices, there has been little incentive for industry to consider the benefits of this route to market.

WRAP’s industry partners include: Greenstar WES and Axion Consulting.

Related topics Processing & Packaging

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