Designing Plastic Packaging for Recyclability

Posted 2025-03-06

When designing packaging, it’s not only important to consider appearance and functionality, but also that the packaging can be recycled and hopefully become a similar product again. At Emballator, we want to inform you of and prepare you for the new PPWR law that will affect us from 2030. This law means that all packaging placed on the EU market must be recyclable. Here are some important points to consider:

 

Material Selection: To be considered recyclable, all parts of the packaging must be made of the same material. This means that the packaging and the closure should be made of the same material. The exception is if any part is less than 5% of the total weight.

 

Sorting: The packaging must also be sortable. For plastic packaging, this means that they must be sortable using NIR light (near infrared). This is not possible if the plastic contains carbon black. In practice, this means that we should not have any black packaging. A black package also incurs a much higher packaging fee than those that are compatible with material recycling. To achieve the cleanest material streams possible, one should opt for light colors that do not darken the plastic stream.

 

Additives: Metallic shimmer also affects the ability to sort and recycle. Therefore, we should avoid mixing, for example, metallic in plastic.

 

Printing and Labels: With our IML label in PP, you can be sure to get packaging with printing that can be recycled.

 

We are here to help you adapt to these new requirements and ensure that your packaging meets the new standards. Contact us if you have any questions or need further information.

Back to news