With the initiative “ARA Circular Design”, Austria's leading packaging collection system, Altstoff Recycling Austria (ARA, Vienna; www.ara.at), plans to push for a reduction of plastic waste and promote the use of recycled plastics in packaging. ARA says the aim is to help save valuable resources through intelligent packaging design and at the same time increase recyclability and the use of recyclate. To this end, it collaborates with consumers, packaging manufacturers and researchers, for example, Institut cyclos-HTP, Austrian research institute for chemistry and technology OFI and the Vienna university of applied sciences FH Campus Wien.

“Design for Recycling” and “Design from Recycling” – emphasising both functionality and attractiveness of the packaging – will be challenges for the future, says ARA director, Christoph Scharff. This especially, he says, as the EU’s Circular Economy package sets ambitious goals for the industry. Today 22.5% of all plastic packaging used in the EU must be recycled – Austria already achieves 34% – but in 2025 the quota will rise to 50%. As the recycling loop in future must be as efficient as possible, with polymer products continuously reused, an eye to recyclability should be cast at the beginning of the value-added chain.

Creating a truly circular economy will require a joint effort of manufacturers, consumers, municipalities and all other players along the chain, Scharff notes. Consequently, the waste logistics company has created a “bespoke” IT model for Austria that is meant to help identify starting points for concrete measures to optimise recyclability in the country. From the technical data of a packaging material, including additives and adhesives, ARA claims that its model can automatically calculate the degree of recyclability achievable in practice under Austrian conditions.