EPRC honors Mondi with recycling award

The Brussels-based European Paper Recycling Council (EPRC) has awarded United Kingdom-based Mondi Group with the 10th edition of its European Paper Recycling Award. Recycled-content paperboard and packaging producer Mondi was honored in early February at a European Parliament session in Brussels hosted by Member of the European Parliament Jeannette Baljeu of the Netherlands.

Although based in the U.K., Mondi operates mills in Austria, the Czech Republic, Italy, Poland and Slovakia in the European Union.

Dr. Elisabeth Schwaiger, Mondi’s head of innovation for flexible packaging, accepted the award, intended to recognize Mondi’s “work in delivering a range of functional paper packaging with specific barriers that are easy to process for recyclers,” according to EPRC.

“I’m proud to accept this award on behalf of Mondi and our teams who are committed to making packaging sustainable by design,” says Schwaiger. “Our recyclable FunctionalBarrier Papers show how innovation and rigorous, science-led testing can deliver real circular solutions.”

States EPRC of Mondi’s recycling-friendly coatings, “This an important element in increasing the recyclability of paper from the design stage and with practical industrial applications: prototypes were tested in Mondi's own recycling lab, applying the Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI) testing method for conventional recycling mills.”

EPRC says the award is handed out every two years to distinguish European projects, initiatives or campaigns that change the way Europeans recycle and support society in reaching higher paper recycling rates.

The latest report by EPRC indicates Europe is on track to reach a 76 percent paper recycling rate by 2030, with the organization saying paper is “already outperforming every other material on recycling” and that Europe is “setting the standard for the rest of the world.”

“Our European paper recycling system is successful not by chance, but by design,” says Valeria Salvadori, board chair of EPRC. “Decades of collaboration across the value chain,  from paper manufacturers and recyclers to collectors, municipalities, and brand owners, have created a system that works.”

Comments legislator Baljeu, “The Circular Economy Act should raise the floor across Europe while being careful not to disrupt an already well-working process. If the EU wants circularity at scale it has to make it easier."