Definition of the requirements to consider a delamination process valid (technically and environmentally).ġ1. Development of new standardisation proposals, to achieve market acceptance and use of the project solutions. Creation of Circular Economy and Innovation Exchange Clubs, to involve all elements of the value chain.ġ0. Identification of barriers and opportunities for increased recycling of multilayer packaging waste.ĩ. Improvement of environmental and socio-economic impacts of the proposed technologies.Ĩ. Development and validation of packaging produced from recycled PET and POs.ħ. Development of recycling processes for the separated fractions - polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polyolefins (POs) - and the PET monomers obtained.Ħ. Development of delamination processes for rigid multilayer packaging by depolymerisation of the PET layer by solvolysis.ĥ. Development of delamination processes for flexible multilayer packaging by means of selective dissolution processes using green solvents, flexible multilayer and adjustable hydrophobicity solvents (SHS), for metallised flexible packaging.Ĥ.
Development of monitoring and identification technologies, using Hyperspectral Imaging (HSI) combined with Near and Shortwave Infrared (NIR/SWIR) identification.Ģ.Implementation of a robotic Artificial Intelligence (AI) system for the classification of multilayer packaging.ģ. It will also contribute to boosting the EU recycled plastics market to reach 10 million tonnes of recycled plastic by 2025, as proposed by the Circular Plastics Alliance, and will contribute to meeting the European circular economy requirements set out in the European Plastics Strategy or the European Green Deal, as well as the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.Ī number of sub-objectives will be developed within the project:ġ. These are expected to provide solutions to recover and recycle 3.03 million tonnes per year of multilayer packaging waste in Europe, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on imported fossil fuels. MERLIN's main objective is to offer technological solutions to increase the quality and waste rate of recycled multilayer packaging and to work on the development of disruptive processes for the sorting, delamination and recycling of multilayer rigid and flexible plastic packaging with a circular economy model. Therefore, this project will focus on the identification of multilayer rigid, non-metallised flexible and metallised flexible packaging, as well as on their recycling, by developing a specific recovery process for each of them. This results in multilayer packaging being landfilled or incinerated and requires improved sorting and recycling processes for multilayer plastic waste currently not recovered from post-consumer sources.
In addition, the high-strength adhesive used to bond the layers requires the current delamination processes to be improved and optimised. Moreover, once sorted, their recyclability depends on costly and complex methods to separate their layers, as the different nature of the polymers makes them incompatible. These are structures that are difficult to detect in sorting plants, as current technologies can only identify their surface layer.
This is still far from the target of recycling 55% of plastic by 2030, as set out in the European Plastics Strategy and Directive (EU) 2018/852 on packaging and packaging waste.Ĭurrently, the market demands a large share of multilayer packaging. Only 32.5% of this plastic packaging was recycled, while 42.6% was incinerated and 24.9% was landfilled (data from Plastics, The Facts 2020). In 2019, 29.1m tonnes of post-consumer plastic waste was collected in Europe.
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