Return systems for plastic packaging

Scientists at Fraunhofer CCPE are looking at ways in which non-deposited plastic packaging can be taken back by retailers and returned to a (closed) material cycle as part of their activities on take-back systems for plastic packaging. This includes a wide range of packaging for consumer goods, e.g. from the food and hygiene product range.

Distributors such as retail companies or packaging manufacturers will be faced with major challenges, among other things, due to the intended recyclate use quotas and the provisions for the promotion of reusable packaging of the upcoming EU Packaging Regulation (PPWD). Global crises such as climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine war are exacerbating problems for companies in sourcing primary and secondary raw materials for their packaging and therefore increase the relevance and timeliness of this topic.

Fraunhofer CCPE is therefore creating a concept for a suitable system service based on the service development according to DIN SPEC 33453. Accordingly, stakeholder analyses were conducted in identifying the relevant stakeholders in the supply chain of plastic packaging. For each stakeholder, requirements and interests as well as known challenges and potentials were elaborated with regard to the closed-loop management of plastic packaging. The results of the stakeholder analysis serve as a basis for offering interested partners solutions that are as tailored as possible and for defining the feasible service portfolio. This ranges from material flow analyses to the development of reverse logistics concepts and the support of their technical implementation to the ecological evaluation of the developed systems. This work is flanked by interviews with companies from the retail sector in order to interweave the latest findings from science with current problems from practice with the current and upcoming regulatory requirements.

In this context, a material database is also being set up to record the most common plastic packaging systems used on the market, so that a comparison of the properties of new materials to be developed with existing solutions in the light of potential fields of application is possible. This includes, in particular, materials designed on the basis of bio-based plastics and plastic recyclates. Our partners thus benefit from the knowledge of a wide range of possible solutions.