Packaging giant Mondi announces new trial to drastically improve recycling sorting processes
Postage stamp-sized digital watermarks on packaging soon could help deliver accurate waste sorting at scale, providing a major boost to efforts to develop a more circular economy.
Packaging and paper supplier Mondi announced last week it is partnering with tech giant AIM, the European Brands Association, and a number of other companies on the HolyGrail 2.0 initiative, which will assess the technology needed to enable widespread digital watermarking on a range of common packaging materials.
The project is the next step in the HolyGrail Pioneer Project, which was funded by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's New Plastics Economy partnership.
Conventional sensor technology such as near infrared spectroscopy is not able to reliably identify multi-material packaging, leading to such materials being seen as contaminants in recycling systems.
Postage stamp-sized digital watermarks on packaging - invisible to the naked eye - are intended to make it possible to effectively sort materials into specific waste streams. Hard to recycle materials could then be processed using enhanced recycling technologies, leading to less waste being sent to landfill and opening up new revenue streams for recyclers.
Consumers could also use a smartphone app to find out more about how and where to recycle a product, the team behind the project said.
Graeme Smith, head of product sustainability for flexible packaging and engineered materials at Mondi, said: "As members of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's New Plastics Economy, we were part of the initial team to bring the Pioneer Project, HolyGrail, to life. At Mondi, we believe packaging should be sustainable by design and we see the need to improve the sorting and separation of packaging waste as part of a circular economy. Digital watermarks have the potential to make this a reality."
Mondi said it will now conduct full-scale industrial trials with key customers in the near future to help identify how the technology could be deployed at scale and what barriers still need to be overcome.