Nestlé, Danish researchers & partners to transform plastic waste into packaging

Nestlé and the Danish Technological Institute (DTI) have launched the InFact project to facilitate chemically recycling household plastic waste into new flexible plastic packaging, including food-safe packaging. The partners are working alongside fourteen other companies and organizations. 

“What makes InFact unique is its systemic approach. Led by DTI, we have united the entire value chain — from municipalities like Copenhagen, Denmark, and sorting experts like Interzero, to chemical industry leaders and global consumer brands such as Nestlé, Cloetta, and Hilton,” Per Sigaard Christensen, business manager at DTI, tells Packaging Insights.

The partnership is a response to the EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) and also includes BKI foods, TotalEnergies, Fraunhofer IVV, Arcus Greencycling Technologies, Re:Lab, Topsoe, Coveris, Dapofa, the University of Southern Denmark, and Vana.

“Flexible food packaging is highly advanced, as it must meet strict food safety and quality requirements. This also makes it more complex to recycle compared to more rigid materials,” Louise Burn, Nordic sustainability manager at Nestlé, tells us. 

 “As a result, the availability of high-quality, food-grade recycled plastic for flexible packaging remains limited today. Scaling this requires technological innovation and the development of new collection and sorting systems that can handle flexible materials more effectively.”

According to DTI, the InFact project aims to tackle landfilling and cross-industry dipping that leads to the downcycling of packaging materials. 

“Sorting mixed household waste to the high purity and low moisture levels required by recyclers is operationally very challenging. The different companies in the value chain do not have an understanding of the consequences of the packaging design on the final recyclability,” Christensen continues. 

“When you add the technical issues of contaminants like chlorine or inks, and a lengthy regulatory approval process of three to four years for food-contact recycled plastics, we face a series of bottlenecks that InFact is designed to solve.”

Cross-industry approach 

Louise Burn, Nordic sustainability manager at Nestlé.Nestlé’s Burn emphasizes that InFact brings together key players across the value chain — from waste management and recyclers to packaging producers and food companies.

“This type of collaboration is essential to unlock new solutions. By testing and scaling new technologies and systems together, the project can help build the infrastructure needed to increase recycling of flexible plastics and make more food-grade recycled material available.”

Christensen adds: “InFact bridges the gap between political regulation and industrial reality by providing cohesive, circular infrastructure at scale. We are focusing on a dynamic relationship where packaging design and recycling economics work hand-in-hand.”

Burn asserts that meeting the upcoming PPWR requirements will require systemic change — “no single company can achieve this alone.”

“Collaborative initiatives like InFact are critical because they enable coordinated action across the value chain. They allow stakeholders to align on standards, accelerate innovation, and scale solutions faster than would be possible individually. This is particularly important for complex materials like flexible packaging.”

Christensen argues: “By testing existing packaging and brand-new designs, we are showing that better design directly improves recyclability. This dramatically increases recycling yields and makes the entire process economically viable.” 

Meeting PPWR requirements 

The InFact project further aims to help companies meet PPWR recyclability and recycled-content requirements. 

Currently, 14% of the 9 million tons of flexible plastic packaging placed on the EU market annually is recycled, according to Christensen. 

He argues that improving yields through chemical recycling can motivate the market to establish local solutions and unlock a stable supply of “high-quality recycled materials.” 

Per Sigaard Christensen, business manager at DTI.“Specifically, we are working on integrating recycled content from dissolution — which restores plastic to a near-virgin state — directly into new packaging films.”

The project will also work to develop supply chain models and roadmaps to align with EPR regulations and eco-modulation of fees, and draft functional tender criteria. The goal is for public tenders to be able to accommodate chemical recycling. 

Fragmented EPR rules are increasingly pushing the packaging industry toward value-chain collaboration to tackle eco-modulation of fees and design for recyclability.

“This will help companies meet the strict PPWR recycled-content requirements for flexible packaging,” Christensen adds. 

Technical and economic viability 

Christensen says that by the time the project is completed, success would mean having proven that the entire end-to-end value chain is technically and economically viable. 

“We want to validate sorting trials that consistently deliver flexible plastic fractions for the targeted recycling technologies. We also aim to have successfully manufactured films at scale containing 30–35% recycled content using our dissolution technology and run them seamlessly on commercial packaging lines.”

“Finally, we must prove that our dissolution process can reliably produce food-grade recycled material that complies with EU food safety regulations.”

Burn highlights that developing circular solutions for flexible packaging is essential to reducing the use of virgin plastics and lowering the environmental footprint of packaging.

“At the same time, it is one of the most challenging areas in the packaging system. That is why partnerships like InFact are so important — they help turn ambition into practical, scalable solutions that can support the transition to a more circular economy.”

Previously, chemical recycling company Greenback told us that the “demonization” of plastic is a “knee-jerk reaction” to the problem of plastic pollution, but the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives Africa referred to chemical recycling as a “false solution” that undermines mechanical recycling and waste reduction efforts.