On 24th February, the Circular Plastics Alliance organised a brainstorming session to discuss obstacles and challenges hampering plastics recycling. In line with the participatory and hands-on approach of the CPA, the session featured seven projects presenting real problems they face, with a brief introduction followed by separate interactive break-out rooms to come up with suggestions and solutions to these problems.
Harold Gankema, program manager for circular packaging at the Brightlands Materials Center, talked about circular stand-up pouches for wet food packaging. Currently, these pouches are made of multi-material multi-layer laminated films and Brightlands Materials Center is working on producing mono-material pouches to enhance their recyclability.
The challenges are mostly technical and linked to ensuring adequate barrier and sealing performances. The break-out rooms offered the opportunity to discuss solutions and get in touch with other practitioners from converting companies and interested pouch producers.
