Interseroh offers packaging recyclability service to retailers, brand owners

Germany-based Interseroh and with the German research group the BIFA Environmental Institute have jointly introduced a method they say will allow retailers and recyclers to assess how well packaging can be recycled.

The goal of the new testing method is to enter more packaging into a recycling process to better manage the materials contained.

To ensure the program is effective, the method has been reviewed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging, according to Interseroh.

“When packaging is designed, the course is set for the recycling capability,” says Markus Müller-Drexel, managing director of Interseroh Dienstleistungs GmbH. “As part of our packaging optimization service, we now enable manufacturers and dealers to optimize their sales packaging in a targeted manner using a scientifically reliable assessment pattern. This is also important with a view to the packaging law coming into effect in 2019. Afterwards, manufacturers are to receive financial incentives to use recycling-capable packaging for the first time.”

To assess the recycling capability of packaging, Interseroh and BIFA have developed a three-stage points system. In the first stage, it is determined whether the consumer can assign the packaging to the correct collection system without difficulty. In the second stage, the package is examined to determine how the packaging performs when it comes to sorting. The two groups say the pertinent question is “Can the currently available sorting technologies sort the packaging into the right material fraction – or do certain materials prevent a clear assignment?”

During the third stage, the analysis examines whether the packaging is suitable for material recycling or whether labels, colors or caps make recycling difficult. The more points the packaging achieve in all three stages, the more easily and better it can be recycled.

“Using our assessment method, weak points of packaging and potential for improvement can be identified very clearly,” says Siegfried Kreibe, deputy managing director of BIFA Umweltinstitut GmbH, parent organization of the institute. “The better the recycling works, the higher the achievable qualities are and thus also the sales opportunities of the emerging recycled raw materials.”

“It is high time that [progress] comes into packaging design,” says Martin Schlummer, business area manager of recycling and the environment at Fraunhofer IVV. “What is important now is that all the participants in the value chain commit themselves to combining the product and design requirements of packaging effectively with its recycling capability.”

The assessment methodology process is part of the Interseroh packaging optimization service “Made for Recycling.”