Unilever joins Nextek’s Nextloopp project to pioneer food-grade PP circular economy

16 Jun 2021 --- Unilever has joined Nextek’s global multi-participant project called Nextloopp, pioneering the conversion of post-consumer polypropylene (PP) into food-grade packaging through mechanical recycling infrastructure. 

Nextloopp has already secured numerous other leading organizations, including Danone, packaging suppliers Sealed Air, Klöckner Pentaplast and Greiner Packaging, label specialist CCL and waste management experts Recoup, Viridor and TerraCycle.

According to Wrap UK, PP accounts for around 20 percent of the world’s plastic. Primarily used in food packaging pots, tubs, trays and films, PP is also prevalent in non-food household and personal care products, complicating the recycling of the 700,000 tons used in the UK annually (PlasticsEurope).

“PP is one of the most popular and versatile polymers,” Professor Edward Kosior, managing director at Nextek, tells PackagingInsights. “It also happens to be the least widely recycled simply because it is not made into bottles but into many varied products.”

“PP could be coined the wonder plastic – its high rigidity-to-weight ratio, strength, transparency and toughness mean it is everywhere from packaging to textiles and cars.”

“Even the surgical masks we are all wearing through to our banknotes are made from PP. And it’s this versatility that has meant PP has been missing from the recycling streams.”Nextloopp is a “world-first” project, closing the loop on food-grade PP. The first rPP is expected to be available in the UK by 2022.

Currently, PP packaging is either going to waste-to-energy, landfill or being downcycled into low-performance applications.

Furthermore, the absence of food-grade rPP means all PP food packaging is currently made from virgin plastics.

Unilever targets plastic cuts
Looming plastic packaging taxes in the EU and UK have sharpened focus on including at least 30 percent recycled content in packaging.

Unilever has pledged to halve its virgin plastic use in packaging and remove more than 100,000 tons of plastic by 2025 as part of its “Less, Better, No” environmental sustainability strategy.

“Unilever supports the advancement of mechanical recycling infrastructure to produce food-grade rPP to complement other technology routes,” says Sanjeev Das, global packaging director at Unilever’s foods and refreshment division.

“Unlocking the mechanical recycling route to produce food-grade rPP will help boost our efforts to keep plastics in a loop and out of the environment.”

“Unilever is a company that is committed to bringing sustainability and circularity to its many products and is helping to overcome the significant challenge of using high-quality recycled PP in food-contact applications,” adds Kosior.

“We look forward to achieving the goal of creating a long-term solution for PP packaging so that consumers can be confident that when they participate in recycling, they are contributing to a better outcome for everyone.”PP is commonly used in food pots, tubs, trays and films and accounts for around 20% of the world’s plastic, says Wrap UK.

Cutting-edge separation technologies
Nextloopp uses commercially-proven technologies to separate food-grade PP using marker technologies. The technologies include advanced decontamination stages, ensuring compliance with EU and US food-grade standards.

“Plastic Packaging Recycling using Intelligent Separation technologies for Materials (Polyprism) applies high-performing luminescent materials to labels on plastic packaging, creating what is best described as an invisible barcode for plastics recycling,” outlines Kosior.

“As the mixed plastic waste runs along the conveyor belt, the high-speed sorting system is triggered by an ultraviolet (UV) light source, creating a unique spectrum of light which identifies the coded Polyprism label [while] cameras read its code and air propels it into the appropriate recycling stream.”

Following extensive trials, Polyprism is now considered well-proven in Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) setups and “plug and play” ready. Moreover, it is complementary to existing Near-Infrared (NIR) technology and can easily be adapted to most sorting facilities globally to target specific recycling streams.

“Even the most challenging plastic waste can now be sorted at full speed of two tons per hour to over 96 percent purity with a yield in excess of 95 percent for PET,” continues Kosior.

“This is a significant step forward in the sub-categorization of not only PP but any and all plastics sorted automatically at high-speed, and it opens up a wealth of new opportunities for brand owners wishing to recover their packaging as part of the circular economy.”

Nextloopp is creating a “world-first” by closing the loop on food-grade PP. The rPP is expected to be available in the UK by 2022.

By Joshua Poole