Design for recycling
Part of the solution for increasing recycling rates is to design plastic products to be recyclable in the first place.
All of the polymers made by INEOS Olefins and Polymers are recyclable. However many of today’s multi-material products combine polymers from different chemical families, making them difficult to recycle.
This explains the INEOS drive towards simpler finished products made from one product family. These ‘mono-material' products can be more easily recycled. We call this our ‘Design for Recycling’ initiative or D4R. Within this program, we are working with value chain partners to re-design products that enable a transition from difficult to recycle multi-material products to simpler mono-material products that can be widely recycled.
Products
INEOS Product Range
INEOS O&P Europe has the broadest polyolefin portfolios in Europe. With grades ranging from monomodal to bimodal HDPE to LDPE, from mLLDPE to plastomers, from PP to acid copolymers and ionomers, we are able to constantly innovate new grades to meet the customer needs in redesigning their products to be recyclable.
INEOS invests in state-of-the-art technology to design recyclable flexible packaging film
In July 2022, INEOS O&P Europe announced a multi-million Euro investment in state-of-the-art pilot line technology that will enable it to work with converters, brands and retailers to develop simpler flexible packaging films that can be more easily recycled. Using new multilayer, blown line technology with Machine Direction Orientation (MDO), INEOS and partners will work together to develop, design polyethylene and polypropylene-based film using fewer polymers, increasing the recyclability of the product. INEOS is the only raw material supplier to have invested in an inline MDO-multilayer line from Hosokawa Alpine, a pioneer in MDO technology.
See full press releaseINEOS world first with recyclable flexible packaging film made from more than 50% recycled plastic waste
In May 2023, INEOS announced a world first, producing ultra-thin, rigid film used for recyclable flexible packaging products made from more than 50% recycled plastic. It is the first time such a high proportion of recycled waste plastic has been used in packaging products. INEOS’ polymer know-how and Hosakawa Alpine’s state of the art Machine-Direction Orientation (MDO) technology have come together to process Recycl-IN resins containing more than 50% recycled plastic to make polyethylene film. This new film will be used to manufacture recyclable single polymer flexible packaging products that replace difficult-to-recycle multimaterial packaging products.
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Design for Recycling: Get in Touch
Please contact us at FlexPack@ineos.com to know more
Other D4R action
INEOS O&P Europe continues to accelerate D4R as one of the most effective ways to increase recycling rates. Other actions include:
- Joining the Digital Watermarks Initiative HolyGrail 2.0 to significantly improve the sorting and recycling of plastic packaging waste, using ground-breaking technology that covers the surface of packaging in imperceptible watermarks
- Expanding our polymer pilot plant facility in Rosignano, Italy, to develop virgin, bio-attributed and advanced recycled polyethylene and polypropylene grades that are tailor-made for specific, more recyclable products
- Expanding production capability of our Recycl-IN grades, to incorporate higher percentages of recycled plastic waste into flexible and rigid packaging, proving that recycled material can be upcycled back into technically demanding applications
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