Report calls for rethink on flexible packaging waste management

A report from the new consultancy has given a snapshot of the current situation and laid out potential future ‘end of life’ options for flexible packaging as it revealed around 80 per cent of UK flexible packaging waste currently ends up in landfill.

The research – Flexible Packaging in the UK Municipal Waste Stream​ – concludes that incineration is likely to be the most viable option for reducing this figure in the short and medium terms but also flags up emerging technologies that may come into play down the line.

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Disproportionate criticism​

The firm defines flexible packaging as polymer and compostable films, foils, including laminates, and plastic bags – with the latter accounting a third of the 840,000 tonnes generated in the UK in 2010.

But the research stressed that packaging in general, and flexible packaging in particular, make up a minor proportion of the UK’s waste stream.

Packaging accounts for around 20 per cent of municipal waste - with flexible packing making up approximately 13 per cent of packaging waste. UK municipal flexible packaging waste volumes are about 3 per cent of total municipal waste, which itself only accounts for 12 per cent of the total waste generated in the UK, said the report.

However, Envicura, part of PCI Films Consulting, said this small fraction of the total “draws a disproportionate amount of criticism on environmental grounds because it is difficult or currently impossible to recycle”.​

Report author Steve Hillam said that a whole new approach to managing flexible packaging waste was necessary.

“Despite the small proportion of the municipal waste stream accounted for by flexible packaging, so much of it is landfilled that it demonstrates a real need for new materials and new waste management methods,”​ he said.

Less than 10 per cent is recycled and the vast majority of this is plastic bags, he told FoodProductionDaily.com.

However, Hillam notes that the development of biodegradable flexible films by such companies and Innovia, FKuR and Huhtmaki also provide a sustainable alternative to landfill.

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Barriers to recycling​

However, within the municipal waste stream there are significant challenges to recycling flexible packaging - with the UK currently ill-equipped to do this, said Hillam.

“Recycling pre-consumer material is possible but it becomes much more difficult post-consumer, especially with food applications,”​ he explained. “Once there is food contamination, current shredding and cleaning processes usually fail to remove foodstuffs and grease. Inks are also a major issue.”​

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The oils and grease contamination from food also tend to coat injection moulding equipment necessitating regular cleaning, which in turns slows production and increases costs.

A further issue is the poor quality of recycled flexible packaging, said Hillam.

“Even when you manage to overcome the technical hurdles, you are left with third grade recyclate for which there is little demand in the UK and Europe,”​ he added.

Hillam said this was one of the reasons why some 37 per cent of packaging waste is going abroad to India and China – where there was a market for lower quality recycled material.​Plastic bags account for around 90 per cent of flexible waste recycling, with 95 per cent of that going abroad, he added.

Up in flames​

One of the most viable options for flexible packaging for reducing the amount landfilled is incineration, said Hillam.

He acknowledged the potential of “emerging technologies”​ such as gasification and pyrolysis – but said they would only likely make any significant impact in the long term - investment and take up permitting.

Last month, construction of the first commercial scale pyrolysis plant in the UK started – with both Kraft and Nestle backing the technology that allows the recovery of aluminium from flexible laminates.

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“In the short term, the most realistic option is incineration because- as an established technology - there is a greater existing capacity and the potential to expand that,”​ said Hillam. “One barrier to this expansion is the powerful environmental lobby which has campaigned against new incinerators.”​

Another potential challenge is the ability of UK to improve its collection infrastructure to provide greater amounts of flexible packaging feedstock for incineration. At present the UK lags behind European nations such as Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands which have vastly superior incineration rates thanks, in part, to more standardised and sophisticated municipal collection systems.