AIM (European Brands Association, Brussels; www.aim.be) has announced that its Digital Watermarks (www.digitalwatermarks.eu) Holy Grail 2.0 initiative is now entering the final phase of R&D trials to validate the technology before a pilot market launch. 

The initiative is testing the feasibility of embossing a watermark onto a plastic container or applying it to a printed label so that the waste packaging can be identified during sorting to improve recycling rates. 

The trials are to assess the technology’s capability to detect, sort, and eject PP flexible packaging produced by drinks giant PepsiCo (New York, New York, USA; www.pepsico.com) and LDPE flexible packaging produced by Swedish hygiene and healthcare company Essity (Stockholm; www.essity.com) and consumer goods group Procter & Gamble (P&G, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; www.us.pg.com).  

German waste management company Hündgen Entsorgung (Swisstal; www.huendgen-entsorgung.de) is to perform granular sorting trials at one of its two domestic facilities, which are located in Stisttal-Ollheim and in Bonn-Beuel Broichstrasse. 

At the same site, the Holy Grail team plans to start a three-month sorting trial on digital water-marked rigid packaging produced for the Danish and German markets by several of the initiative’s member companies. The trial will be assisted by two prototype machines developed by Pellenc Selective Technologies (Pertuis, France; www.pellencst.com) and Digimarc (Beaverton, Oregon, USA; www.digimarc.com) and installed on Hündgen Entsorgung’s commercial sorting line.

Borealis (Vienna; www.borealisgroup.com) will then test the polypropylene films and polyethylene flexible fractions collected at Hündgen Entsorgung, while Indorama Ventures (IVL, Bangkok, Thailand; www.indoramaventures.com) is to test the separated non-food PET bottle stream from the rigid trial at its recycling plant in Verdun, France. 

Should the trials be successful, the technology is to launch in 2024 in France. So far, seven member companies are preparing to roll out their watermarked HDPE rigid packaging, supported by French recycling NGO Citeo (Paris; www.citeo.com). 

Related: Major firms join HolyGrail 2.0 project

AIM said major brand owners Henkel (Düsseldorf, Germany; www.henkel.com), L’Oréal (Paris; www.loreal.com), and P&G plan to add the digital watermark to a “significant part” of their HDPE rigid packaging products in the coming months.  

After being used by consumers, the collected HDPE waste will be taken to Veolia’s (Paris; www.veolia.com) PlastiLoop facility in Brenouille, France, where it will be separated from material that does not have the watermark. Then, following a granular sorting trial, the watermarked waste will be divided into two distinct streams and reprocessed for further development into grades suitable for reuse in detergent and cosmetic packaging. 

If successful, the pilot launch in France will pave the way for market adoption at scale, AIM said.