Dow and partners deliver new recycling concept to "close the loop" for digitally printed pouches
Key industry players join forces to recycle PE-based barrier pouch into new high-quality
PE pouches suitable for repeat recycling to help drive a circular economy.
Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics, together with HP Indigo, Reifenhäuser, Cadel Deinking and Karlville,
announce the successful delivery of the first-of-its-kind, "pouch-to-pouch" mechanical recycling concept,
enabled by an unusual value-chain effort.
The approach uses a multi-stage process to contribute to a circular economy for digitally printed
pouches. Starting with a polyethylene (PE)-based, barrier food pouch designed for recyclability, the
project team have used mechanical recycling and deinking to create a high-quality dishwasher
MDO-PE pouch containing 30% recycled contents and being itself suitable for recycling.
In a next step, the team is working on a digital product passport pilot to allow for recycling-relevant
packaging properties to be recorded and to make the pouch identifiable for high-quality recycling within
post-consumer waste management.
Optimal recycling output designed from the outset
Delivering the high-quality PE-pouch has required several steps in a coordinated process with each
team member applying their experience and capabilities collaboratively: “The requirements for plastic packaging products have never been more complex than today. And we
have modified and enhanced our Reifenhäuser production lines to enable films and packages not just
to be economical and functional, but to meet the vast demand for recyclable packaging based on
mono-material structures”, says Ralf Wiechmann, Head of Film Innovation at Reifenhäuser: “For this project we’ve broadened our machinery expertise to co-extrude the new resins on our highly
flexible EVO 9-layer blown film line and produce PE-based packaging films at fast line speeds. This
project shows that we can successfully both produce recyclable packaging, according to Recyclass
and CEFLEX guidelines, and use recycled materials in high value applications if we collaborate
effectively along the value chain.”
“To create the new pouch, HP reverse-printed the recyclable MDO-PE film on the HP Indigo 25K
Digital Press with the dishwasher pouch artwork to have it ready for lamination to the film using
recycled resins at Dow’s Pack Studios,” adds Itai Shifriss, Head of Indigo Business Supplies at HP.
”Sustainability is a key strategic growth area for HP customers and HP, and in order to drive the circular
economy we collaborate with leading value chain partners.”
“Thanks to Dow’s Pack Studios and a team of world-class scientists, we could apply our full expertise
and testing capabilities to make our resins work in this proof of concept,” explained Laura Evangelio,
senior technical service and development specialist at Dow Packaging & Specialty Plastics. “The first
PE-rich pouch was designed for recyclability with up to 5% EVOH in the total structure for barrier
functionality, and Dow’s innovative resins provided a remarkable stiffness-toughness balance, low-
temperature sealability, adhesion to extruded barrier layers and excellent bubble stability. For the
second PE-based pouch we used a high-performing solventless adhesive to enable the lamination of
the MDO-PE film to the PE-film containing recycled resins from the first pouch. The project is not only
a triumph in our industry’s sustainability efforts but a true example of focused scientific teamwork.”
“To produce the recycled PE resins for the second pouch, we used our deinking technology to achieve
the best outcome,” said Pablo Cartagena, Business development manager at Cadel Deinking. “The
deinking process is key because it effectively removes ink from the plastic surface to obtain a plastic
with similar characteristics to the raw virgin material which helps to provide high-quality pouch-to-
pouch recycling. We are very happy to collaborate closely with all these leading companies and to
demonstrate that Cadel's deinking technology is considered ‘crucial’ to achieve circularity in plastic.”
“The Karlville pouch machine is one with the most compact footprint on the market, designed for
extremely low set-up waste and quick change-over, perfectly suitable for recyclable materials,” said
Gustavo Guzzi, EMEA Sales Manager from Karlville. “We are proud to be part of this project to
manufacture a high-quality PE-based pouch which is itself already challenging. But to allow for
recyclability is amazing, and with the right project partners it is now within reach.”
Next step: closing the loop for traceability
As a further evolution of the project, the companies are working to add digital traceability to the
pouches in line with the R-Cycle initiative, a cross-company initiative to develop an open and globally
applicable traceability standard for sustainable plastic packaging. The aim of this initiative is to
automatically record recycling-relevant packaging properties during production by providing a digital
product passport and to pass them on through the value chain. Using special markings, usable
packaging can then be identified in the recycling process and sorted into single-type fractions. This is
the key to obtaining high-quality recyclates in order to continue efforts to close the loop. R-Cycle is
being driven by several major stakeholders in the plastics industry, including Reifenhäuser, which is
contributing the technology to the pouch-to-pouch concept.
“Dow is engaged to drive the adoption of PE-based packaging designed for recyclability, which works
in recycling and recovers the value of the initial use as shown in this project,” concludes “Dow is engaged to drive the adoption of PE-based packaging designed for recyclability, which works
in recycling and recovers the value of the initial use as shown in this project,” concluded Jaroslaw
Jelinek, global marketing manager for oriented PE technologies, Dow Packaging and Specialty
Plastics. “Through Pack Studios, Dow is contributing to industry-scale testing and production
capabilities to accelerate the development of such projects globally. This announcement represents
the latest in our efforts to address both climate change and plastic waste with our extended
sustainability targets to protect the climate, stop the waste and close the loop.”
“Dow is engaged to drive the adoption of PE-based packaging designed for recyclability, which works
in recycling and recovers the value of the initial use as shown in this project,” concluded Jaroslaw
Jelinek, global marketing manager for oriented PE technologies, Dow Packaging and Specialty
Plastics. “Through Pack Studios, Dow is contributing to industry-scale testing and production
capabilities to accelerate the development of such projects globally. This announcement represents
the latest in our efforts to address both climate change and plastic waste with our extended
sustainability targets to protect the climate, stop the waste and close the loop.”
, global marketing manager for oriented PE technologies, Dow Packaging and Specialty
Plastics. “Through Pack Studios, Dow is contributing to industry-scale testing and production
capabilities to accelerate the development of such projects globally. This announcement represents
the latest in our efforts to address both climate change and plastic waste with our extended
sustainability targets to protect the climate, stop the waste and close the loop.”