FLEXIBLE PACKAGING
Advanced Packaging Association starts lobbying for PA multilayer films
By Plasteurope.com staff
 In charge of the APA’s lobby work: Paul Neumann (l.) and Nicola Bucchioni (Photo: APA) |
The rather sceptical assessment of the recyclability of multilayer polyamide packaging films issued by Germany’s central packaging register authority ZSVR (Osnabrück; www.verpackungsregister.org/en) has startled PA producers across Europe.
In response, the European polyamide producers – BASF, UBE, Domo Chemicals, Envalior, and Grupa Azoty – have founded the Advanced Packaging Association (APA, Brussels; www.advanced-packaging-association.org) to “help shape the future of flexible packaging in a fact-based and meaningful way”. In other words: the lobby organisation aims to protect its members’ interests and prevent unfavourable decisions where possible.
BASF’s website, for instance, says, “At present, packaging containing polyamide is still [...] declared as non-recyclable, although current studies come to a different conclusion”. According to the chemical giant, the recyclability of PA 6 in the waste stream of flexible polyethylene packaging has been demonstrated – at the end of 2023, cyclos-HTP (Aachen; www.cyclos-htp.de), the German institute for recyclability and product responsibility, conducted respective tests on behalf of the petrochemical group that confirmed the recyclability of multilayer film containing PA.
However, the finding that packaging containing PA is apparently recyclable and sustainable is not yet widely known; the APA thus aims to bring it to the attention of all relevant decision-makers by 2027.
The organisation is headed by Nicola Bucchioni, senior market intelligence manager at UBE, and his deputy Paul Neumann, senior manager new business development at BASF.
According to UBE, APA’s mission is to ensure that, based on scientific data, PA-based packaging is recognised as recyclable and sustainable by 2027, and acknowledged as contributing to the prevention of food waste and reduced raw material consumption.
Due to their better resistance to low temperatures, films with a polyamide component are used as packaging for frozen goods, among other things. These films are also considered to be mechanically more robust than pure polyolefin films.
— Translated by Christopher Köbel
In response, the European polyamide producers – BASF, UBE, Domo Chemicals, Envalior, and Grupa Azoty – have founded the Advanced Packaging Association (APA, Brussels; www.advanced-packaging-association.org) to “help shape the future of flexible packaging in a fact-based and meaningful way”. In other words: the lobby organisation aims to protect its members’ interests and prevent unfavourable decisions where possible.
BASF’s website, for instance, says, “At present, packaging containing polyamide is still [...] declared as non-recyclable, although current studies come to a different conclusion”. According to the chemical giant, the recyclability of PA 6 in the waste stream of flexible polyethylene packaging has been demonstrated – at the end of 2023, cyclos-HTP (Aachen; www.cyclos-htp.de), the German institute for recyclability and product responsibility, conducted respective tests on behalf of the petrochemical group that confirmed the recyclability of multilayer film containing PA.
However, the finding that packaging containing PA is apparently recyclable and sustainable is not yet widely known; the APA thus aims to bring it to the attention of all relevant decision-makers by 2027.
The organisation is headed by Nicola Bucchioni, senior market intelligence manager at UBE, and his deputy Paul Neumann, senior manager new business development at BASF.
According to UBE, APA’s mission is to ensure that, based on scientific data, PA-based packaging is recognised as recyclable and sustainable by 2027, and acknowledged as contributing to the prevention of food waste and reduced raw material consumption.
Due to their better resistance to low temperatures, films with a polyamide component are used as packaging for frozen goods, among other things. These films are also considered to be mechanically more robust than pure polyolefin films.
— Translated by Christopher Köbel
27.06.2024 Plasteurope.com [255618-0]
Published on 27.06.2024
German version of this article...