Tray-to-tray recycling is turning into a recognised method for advancing circularity in plastic packaging – particularly for food-grade functions. Valerio Sama, Enterprise Growth Supervisor – Packaging at TOMRA Recycling, examines the most recent developments in tray-to-tray recycling, detailing the challenges, applied sciences and market developments shaping its development throughout the business.
In contrast to bottle-to-bottle recycling, the PET tray stream has traditionally been underutilised; trays had been hardly ever collected or recycled previous to the early 2020s. When recycled content material was utilized in trays, it sometimes got here from bottles, elevating considerations about diverting invaluable feedstock away from closed-loop bottle methods. This historic oversight has led to a big environmental burden: whereas roughly 1 million tons of PET trays are launched to the European Union market annually, a staggering 70% of this invaluable materials is misplaced, with solely round 300,000 tons at the moment collected for recycling. This represents a crucial missed alternative for circularity and highlights the pressing want for improved assortment and recycling infrastructure.
Fortuitously, tray-to-tray recycling has lately gained traction as an rising resolution inside the broader effort to enhance plastic packaging circularity. This shift is essentially pushed by latest adjustments in EU laws, together with the Single-Use Plastics Directive (SUPD) and the formidable Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR). These rules haven’t solely elevated the required recycled content material thresholds in beverage bottles, however are additionally setting targets for packaging past bottles, prompting tray producers to hunt new, devoted sources of recycled PET.
Addressing the boundaries to tray circularity
Regardless of its potential, tray-to-tray recycling presents a number of challenges right now. PET trays usually characteristic complicated designs, together with multilayer constructions, inks, adhesives and labels, which complicate sorting and decontamination. In contrast to bottles, trays are typically much less standardised in form and composition, making automated identification and separation harder. Contamination – similar to meals residues or embedded international supplies – can additional hinder sorting precision, particularly as soon as trays are compressed into bales.
Assortment infrastructure stays a significant bottleneck. Whereas PET bottles profit from well-established deposit return methods and excessive assortment charges, trays are sometimes collected with combined packaging or under no circumstances. Moreover, the know-how for sorting PET trays right into a separate, devoted fraction is just not but a normal apply, in contrast to with bottles. This usually ends in collected trays being misplaced inside the combined PET fraction or the final residue stream. This inconsistent feedstock high quality and restricted availability considerably improve the fee and complexity of manufacturing food-grade recycled PET from trays.
Advancing tray-to-tray recycling by way of cutting-edge know-how
The business is responding to the complexities of tray-to-tray recycling with more and more refined improvements. Superior sensor-based sorting methods now play a central position in enabling high-quality restoration of PET trays. Conventional NIR methods like TOMRA’s multifunctional AUTOSORT™, as an example, are capable of differentiate between mono-layer and multi-layer PET trays. This distinction is important as a result of solely mono-layer trays are appropriate for high-quality, closed-loop recycling.
A few of the most vital developments are happening on the flake degree, the place sorting applied sciences are deployed to focus on a broad vary of contaminants. Outfitted with multi-sensor configurations, these machines can concurrently detect flakes by polymer sort, color, transparency and materials ageing. This degree of precision is important for eradicating substances similar to PVC, metals, and opaque particles.
As soon as trays are shredded into flakes, TOMRA’s INNOSORT™ FLAKE system makes use of quick, clever sorting to precisely separate supplies based mostly on polymer sort, color and transparency. Its high-speed capabilities effectively take away frequent contaminants similar to opaque PET, PVC, PC and different undesirable particles, minimising materials loss whereas laying the groundwork for an ultra-clean output.
Constructing on this basis, AUTOSORT™ FLAKE refines the flake stream even additional. This high-end software system delivers distinctive accuracy on the best ranges of detection and is even able to detecting metals and multilayers. Utilizing multifaceted sorting applied sciences, it handles complicated impurities that would in any other case degrade high quality. The mixed effort of those two sorting phases is a necessary device for producers aiming to fulfill the stringent necessities of food-contact packaging.
Some amenities function twin sorting strains for clear and colored PET fractions, utilizing flake-level detection to allow steady, versatile manufacturing. By attaining purity ranges of 99% and above, these methods can permit recyclers to fulfill the rigorous benchmarks required for food-grade functions, whereas boosting yield and increasing the vary of recycled content material, similar to trays appropriate for microwave use.
Bridging post-consumer and post-industrial streams
Tray-to-tray recycling attracts materials from each post-consumer and post-industrial sources – every providing distinct benefits and challenges. Submit-industrial waste, similar to offcuts from thermoforming strains or rejected batches, sometimes options clear and homogeneous PET, making it supreme for direct reprocessing. In distinction, post-consumer trays recovered by way of municipal assortment methods are extra variable in composition, usually containing multi-layer designs, labels and residual contamination. Regardless of these complexities, post-consumer recycling is crucial for scaling circularity on the shopper degree.
TOMRA’s sorting applied sciences are outfitted to deal with each streams – enhancing high quality and consistency by way of sensible sensor configurations that adapt to feedstock variability. By integrating post-consumer and post-industrial inputs, recyclers can optimise throughput and generate recycled PET that meets specs for brand spanking new tray manufacturing.
Outlook: Scaling tray-to-tray recycling for the long run
Tray-to-tray recycling has the potential to turn out to be a mainstream resolution for managing post-consumer PET packaging. Whereas the section continues to be in its early phases in comparison with bottle recycling, innovation and increasing infrastructure can shut this hole step-by-step. Investments in automated sorting applied sciences, materials standardisation and devoted assortment schemes are anticipated to enhance feedstock consistency and recyclate high quality. Collaborative efforts between packaging producers, recyclers and tools producers shall be crucial in scaling operations and overcoming design-for-recycling boundaries. Equally crucial would be the regulatory approval to make use of recycled content material in meals trays. As soon as the continuing evaluation concludes positively, the business can anticipate a renewed impetus.
Tray-to-tray recycling is poised to evolve from a distinct segment innovation right into a core pillar of round packaging methods within the coming years. This offers a viable pathway to scale back reliance on virgin plastic and meet essential recycled content material targets. TOMRA’s ongoing growth of cutting-edge sorting options will proceed to play a key position in advancing this transition.
