The audit focussed on the suitability of APK’s plants for the recycling of post-consumer waste from plastic films as well as of waste from PE/PA multilayer film production. All test requirements were successfully fulfilled and in July 2021 ARGE cyclos / HTP awarded APK the official EuCertPlast certificate. ‘This certificate is extremely important to us, as we see a growing number of brand owners and plastic converters across Europe requesting EuCertPlast as certification standard’, noted Florian Riedl, Director of Business Development at APK AG. ‘The certificate provides third-party-verified proof to our customers that we are able to valorise post-consumer plastics in our plant and that we do so with respect for the environment’.
Newcycling technology
Newcycling, APK’s dissolution recycling process, can easily separate the different polymers found in multilayer plastic packaging – deemed non-recyclable until now – and transform the target polymer into re-granulates with close to virgin properties. Dissolution recycling is an advanced physical recycling technology. Building on a mechanical pre-treatment, it adds a solvent-based process step, during which the target polymer is dissolved, separated, and purified. Contaminants, such as pigments, printing inks, organic residues, or additives, are removed. The Newcycling technology can treat waste from PE/PA multilayer film production as well as post-consumer plastic film waste from household collection.
EuCertPlast certification scheme
Established in 2012, EuCertPlast is a Europe-wide harmonised certification scheme based on the European Standard EN 15343:2007: ‘Plastics. Recycled plastics. Plastics recycling traceability and assessment of conformity and recycled content’. It addresses the issues of the varying standards of plastics recycling across EU countries as well as a lack of transparency and traceability. Consequently, EuCertPlast focuses on the traceability of plastic materials across the entire recycling process and supply chain. Its founding members include the European Association of Plastics Recycling (EPRO), Plastics Recyclers Europe (PRE), European Plastics Converters (EuPC), and Recovinyl – an initiative of the European PVC industry. EuCertPlast is recognised by a number of compliance schemes and product labels, including Germany’s Blue Angel and Italy’s Corepla.
