On 29 June, CIRCULAR FoodPack held its first public webinar on “Innovative sorting for plastic packaging waste: Tracer-Based-Sorting and digital watermarking, in conjunction with NIR sorters” and reached more than 60 participants. In close collaboration with the EU-funded project CIMPA, we demonstrated the characteristics of the Tracer-Based-Sorting and the digital watermarking and underlined the role of efficient sorting technologies for more circularity in plastic packaging.
The webinar started with a keynote on “Policy drivers for circular plastic packaging”. In her presentation, Maria Vera Duran from the European Recycling Industries’ Confederation (EuRIC) focused on the political and regulatory environment at the European level. Among other things, she gave informative insights into the European Commission’s proposal for a new regulation of the Packaging and Packaging Waste.
After two insightful introductions to the two EU-projects CIMPA and CIRCULAR FoodPack, the audience got profound information on Tracer-Based-Sorting and digital watermarking. Jochen Moesslein from Polysecure presented the Tracer-Based-Sorting technology applied in the CIRCULAR FoodPack project. He pointed out that the fluorescent tracers are highly efficient as they are robustly available over many use cycles and years. The tracers allow a fast and reliable detection and are compliant to EU, US and further chemical and material regulations. As such, Tracer-Based-Sorting offers a huge potential for more circular plastics. Antoine Bourély from Pellenc ST and Marien de Lint from FiliGrade Sustainable Watermarks introduced the digital watermarking and their NIR technology. This sorting technology is used in the CIMPA project and enables efficient sorting of plastic packaging waste to increase its circularity as well.
During the panel discussion, the speakers pointed out that sorting is a crucial step to achieve higher circularity in plastic packaging. A close collaboration along the whole value chain, a strong commitment from the political level and further investments from the industrial sector are key elements on our way towards a circular economy.
