Increasing the quality and rate of MultilayER packaging recycLINg waste

Project Information

MERLIN

Grant agreement ID: 101003883

DOI

10.3030/101003883

Project closed

EC signature date 25 May 2021

Start date 1 June 2021

End date 30 November 2024

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Climate action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials

Total cost

€ 4 926 225,00

EU contribution

€ 4 926 225,00

Coordinated by

INSTITUTO TECNOLOGICO DEL EMBALAJE, TRANSPORTE Y LOGISTICA
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - MERLIN (Increasing the quality and rate of MultilayER packaging recycLINg waste)

Reporting period: 2022-12-01 to 2024-11-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The main objective of MERLIN is the development and promotion of disruptive processes for the sorting, delamination and recycling of rigid and flexible multi-layer plastic packaging waste from post-consumer and post-industrial sources to obtain new high-performance packaging solutions (flexible and rigid) for the food packaging industry. This will retain value in the economy and reduce the consumption of raw materials (e.g. fossil-based polymers and metals) as well as increasing the quality and rate of recycled materials from multi-layer packaging waste. In addition, MERLIN project commitment will be aligned with the environment protection, the development of circular solutions, and the knowledge generation for companies which help the European industry with the transition through a Circular Economy.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

WP1
- Identification, distribution and quantification of multi-layer packaging materials in a waste treatment facility.
- Selection of the feasible techniques based on lab scale tests using the reference packaging samples to correctly monitor the targeted multi-layer material.
- A working robotic demonstrator has been developed.
- Preliminary works for the integration of the monitoring unit and solutions for sorting were done during this period.

WP2
- Polyester depolymerization for rigid packaging delamination has been achieved on lab scall. The developed process consists of a pre-treatment step in which EVOH is dissolved, as a modular addition to the existing PET depolymerisation process. The ethylene glycol that is used for the pre-treatment is purified by means of filtration and/or centrifugation upon solvent cooling.
- Delamination for non-metalized film delamination has been achieved on lab scale: characterization of multilayer packaging, evaluation of the Hansen solubility parameters (HSP) delamination process and operational conditions study.
- Metalized flexible packaging variably composed by Aluminium layers, PET, PE and PP have been treated with solvent-based methods to achieve polymer delamination or dissolution along with high-quality aluminium recovery.
- Several properties of recovered polymers were evaluated using FTIR and DSC.

WP3
- Indorama did not receive any PET monomers yet from Ioniqa to begin with initial characterization of the materials. It is expected to align with WP2 to make a proper testing plan for 2023 and to begin with these activities.
- CEA will valorize recycled multilayers materials based on flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and flexible and rigid polyethylene (PE) from delamination process (WP2).

WP4 has not been started yet.

WP5
- First steps in LCC are parallel to LCA and that includes the definition of functional unit and reference flows, system boundaries, allocation procedures, baseline scenario, etc.
- Materiality assessment has been completed with the support of stakeholders of MERLIN project and potentially relevant stakeholder categories and social topics for this S-LCA have been selected.
- A safety process design methodology has been developed by ITENE and it will be implemented in the course of the project.
- EuPC will evaluate the sustainability of the processes and packaging products throughout their life cycle with a view to proposing the incorporation/modification of these policies to ensure that they take into account environmental, social and economic implications. Currently, all relevant standardisation and certification landscape is continually assessed at international, EU and national levels.

WP6
- A value chain mapping exercise and a baseline analysis were carried out by CSCP with contributions from all consortium partners.
- The evaluation of good practices is led by P09 CSCP while consortium partners with relevant expertise contribute to the evaluation process. A template for evaluation was developed.
- About the Decision Support System for multi-layer packaging recycling, initial meetings and discussions were carried out between IRIS, CSCP, ENCO and ITENE to set preliminary basis for the tool.
- ITENE worked in collaboration with the CSCP to conduct specific surveys to engage the end-users of packaging and to identify their points of interest. A QR code will be designed to be read via any app.

WP7
- During Communication and visibility campaign, an effective communication strategy has been established to generate and promote common understanding of the main messages to be distributed to the target audience.
- A Preliminary Plan for the Exploitation and Dissemination of the project results has been developed and submitted as deliverable (D7.2) in M12.
- In order to demonstrate at the end of the project the commercial potential of MERLIN solution, discussions among KERs owner and Exploitation Manager started.
Interaction with Task 6.2 started in order to align the strategy and create a database of stakeholders.

WP8
- ITENE has worked on the management of the project through the active communication with the consortium and the European Commission (EC), has done the day-to-day management of the project during this period and has been working in this task in order to analyse the main elements of the data management policy with regards to the datasets generated by the project.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

During the first 18 months of the project, the project partners have evaluated the progress towards the following impacts:
- The increased yield and quality in the sorting of products made of multi-layer materials. In order to achieve this impact, in WP1 it is developed an integrated monitoring system able to identify the multi-layer polymer structure, and a robotic sorting that enable the classification on rigid and flexible packaging and increased the sorting speed.
- The increased recycling of raw materials from products made of multi-layer materials, in terms of volume and quality. This project is mainly focused on the delamination and recovery of PET and POs from multilayer packaging, the efficiency is over 60%. Another key performance indicator for this impact is recycling of 3.51 Mt.
- To reduce the use of virgin raw materials. Key performance indicators are production of high-added value packaging prototypes, as food packaging, added to that the reduction of kg CO2 eq by using recovered plastics compared to raw material production, but there is not enough information now to make such a statement yet.
- To increase knowledge on ‘’circular design’’ of products currently made of multi-layer materials, by networking and interaction among stakeholders and standardization organization.
- To increase knowledge of the process environmental footprint, including the net effects on greenhouse gas emissions, thanks to improved sorting, separation and recycling of multi-layer material.
- The last impact is about socio-economic science what have an important role in this project because it provides insights on what factors need to be considered and addressed in the process of changing the value chain towards circularity.

Scheme of MERLIN project