Packaging World: Will Monomaterials Become the Standard in Flexible Packaging?

"One of the fundamental elements of the Circular Economy is recycling, and its role in materials permanence within the production cycle. According to PMMI's new market intelligence report, '2019 Trends and Advances in Food Packaging and Processing,' almost two of every three food manufacturing companies are looking for recyclable packaging solutions, and the vast majority of participants in the study developed at least one major change in their packaging materials to increase recycling facility.

​Strong obstacles, however, impede the recyclability of many materials for flexible packaging and their use in manufacturing products similar or different from the original ones. In this same PMMI report, a packaging engineer from a multinational beverage manufacturer stated: 'Flexible packaging with barrier films cannot be recycled, so we need more innovative solutions.'"

“That is our vision, to focus on monomaterials without losing properties, and always taking into account recyclability, both theoretical and practical”

"...It seems important to highlight how initiatives towards monomaterials are going to involve the use of compatibilizers and other resins, so that materials - even polyolefins - must be made compatible in order to be mixed and recycled together with polyethylene."

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