COtooCLEAN wins annual packaging recycling project award: CO2 technology achieves flexible packaging food grade recycling

Nextek and Coveris won the “Packaging Recycling Project of the Year” award for their COtooCLEAN technology. This technology is based on carbon dioxide and aims to achieve food grade recycling of flexible plastic films. The source did not disclose the specific process parameters, processing capacity, commercialization schedule, or recycled material performance data of this technology.

Technical positioning and industry background

Flexible plastic film has long been a difficult point in plastic recycling due to issues such as multi-layer composite, printing ink, and residual pollutants.

. Food grade recycling requires recycled materials to meet strict migration and sensory standards, which places higher demands on the purification ability of the recycling process. COtooCLEAN uses carbon dioxide as a medium to enter this stage, and its award indicates that this route has gained industry recognition in the field of packaging recycling.

Significance for the polymer additive industry

Recycled materials need to be reintroduced into food contact or high value-added applications, usually requiring the use ofpolymer additivesto compensate for performance losses during processing and use.. For example, antioxidants can inhibit the thermal oxidative degradation of recycled materials during reprocessing, while light stabilizers and UV absorbers can help restore the weather resistance of outdoor films. If purification technologies such as COtooCLEAN can stably produce low pollution recycled materials, it will expand the use space of functional masterbatch in the modification of recycled materials, and create demand for the application of compatible and dispersing additives such as maleic anhydride grafted wax in multi-layer film recycling systems. At present, the source has not provided specific cases of the synergy between this technology and the formulation of additives. Relevant judgments need to be verified with subsequent data.

Information to be observed

• The processing scale, energy consumption, and carbon dioxide source mode of COtooCLEAN;

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• Food grade compliance testing results and performance indicators of recycled materials; Integration methods and commercial cooperation models with existing recycling production lines.

Information source:COtooCLEAN Wins Packaging Recycling Project of Year， Organized by Herun Chemical.