Holy Grail 2.0 hits semi-industrial milestone as Copenhagen prepares city-wide recycling trials

06 Sep 2021 --- Digital watermarks are revving with potential, as highlighted by a new partnership to drive the next stage of development for intelligent waste sorting under the Digital Watermarks Initiative Holy Grail 2.0.

With aims to become the world’s first carbon-neutral capital by 2025, the city of Copenhagen is partnering with AIM, the European Brands Association and the Alliance to End Plastic Waste on a semi-industrial pilot test phase. 

Over the next four months, a prototype sorting detection unit will be installed at the Amager Resource Centre (ARC) in the Danish capital, where the trials with 200 coded stock-keeping units (SKUs) and demonstrations will be held. 

Engineers will test for several parameters, including the system’s speed and accuracy, to ensure its ability to withstand the pressures of full-scale industrial operations.

“High-quality plastic recycling that substitutes new production and reduces incineration is a key instrument to reach this goal,” says Merete Kristoffersen, head of Copenhagen’s waste and resources division.

Copenhagen is working to become the world’s first carbon-neutral capital by 2025.“Holy Grail 2.0 has the potential to achieve this and we look forward to doing our part in the testing of the technology.”

Trial products expected 2022
Digital watermarks are imperceptible codes, each the size of a postage stamp. They cover the surface of a consumer goods packaging and when scanned can reveal a wide range of information, such as packaging type, material and usage.

Used packaging is collected and scanned on the sorting line with a high-resolution camera, detecting and decoding the digital watermark. 

The packaging is then sorted into corresponding streams, based on specified attributes such as food, non-food, or polymer types. This leads to more accurate sorting streams and higher quality recyclates to be channeled back into the plastic packaging value chain.

“As testing continues, we know there will be many things to solve along the way. But with strong collaboration of our public and private sector partners, we believe intelligent sorting can be a new frontier that could help dramatically improve plastic waste management,” comments Jacob Duer, president and CEO of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste. 

If successful, digitally watermarked products could be introduced to store shelves in Denmark, France and Germany by the first half of 2022 for in-market demonstrations and industrial-scale trials.

Replenishing the goblet
This milestone marks the second year of the Holy Grail 2.0 project. Since its launch in September 2020, it has included over 130 participating companies and organizations across the complete packaging value chain. 

The pioneering Holy Grail 1.0 was facilitated by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation between 2016 and 2019.

“An initiative like this can only thrive with the wide support of different key stakeholders in terms of expertise, but of course also financial support,” says Michelle Gibbons, AIM director-general. 

“Collaboration is the way forward to achieve the EU’s circular economy goals and we are confident this technology has the potential to drive a truly circular economy for packaging.”

Other companies to substantially invest in the second edition of the Holy Grail initiative include PepsiCo, P&G and Ferrero.

Digimarc has also offered its barcodes as part of the Holy Grail 2.0 initiative together with Paccor.Machine vendor selection
As semi-industrial trials gain ground, Holy Grail 2.0 is on track to complete its in-market demonstrations planned for 2022.

The two machine vendors involved in the Copenhagen collaboration are Pellenc ST and Tomra. Together with the selected digital watermarks technology provider Digimarc, they are developing add-on modules for their detection sorting units to be combined with existing near infrared (NIR) sorters.

Both machine modules will be tested during the semi-industrial phase via trials at two different test locations. The first controlled tests using industrial-sized equipment and the Pellenc ST/Digimarc module are scheduled for next month at ARC sorting center.

PackagingInsights previously spoke with Digimarc in-depth about its broader ambitions for the Holy Grail 2.0 initiative, as well as how NIR detection sorting units are decreasing in prominence.

Finishing touches
Pending successful completion of the semi-industrial trials, brand owners and retailers will then bring their enhanced products to market in Denmark, France and Germany. 

During this commercial test phase, consumers will buy on-shelf products with digitally watermarked packaging. 

The sorting units will be placed in five different locations in France and Germany, including material recovery facilities, plastic recovery facilities and recycling plants.

This last phase is scheduled to run until Q3 2022, when a public report outlining the techno-economic analysis of the digital watermark technology for sorting of packaging waste will be issued.

By Anni Schleicher