Collaborative initiative Circular Economy for Flexible Packaging (CEFLEX) estimates that meeting recycled content rules under the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) will require 2.5 million tonnes of post-consumer material from flexible packaging by 2030.<\/p>\n
In its report, ‘Secondary Applications for Recycled Content: Key Insights for Flexible Packaging’, the group projects that this requirement will increase to 5.9 million tonnes by 2035, when a 55% recycling rate target is due to apply across all plastic packaging formats.<\/p>\n
The study says that, between 2025 and 2035, an extra 440,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of flexible packaging made from post-consumer recyclate would need to be taken up annually to stay on course for PPWR compliance.<\/p>\n
This includes recycled polyethylene, polypropylene and mixed polyolefins.<\/p>\n
CEFLEX also points to a wider range of end-uses outside packaging, such as construction films, refuse sacks, transport packaging and horticulture products, as possible outlets for the recycled material.<\/p>\n
Including those sectors, the total potential demand for post-consumer recyclate is put at 4.3 million tonnes in 2030.<\/p>\n
According to the organisation, packaging on its own is unlikely to take in the full volume of recycled material required to underpin higher recycling rates.<\/p>\n
CEFLEX external affairs director Arne Jost said: \u201cMeeting recycled content targets is not only about recycling more. It depends on whether that material can move into real applications, at the right quality and at scale.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis work helps identify where those markets are and what they require in practice.\u201d<\/p>\n