Unilever joins food packaging related rPP project

Unilever has joined Nextek's global project NextLoopp to manufacture food-grade recycled polypropylene from post-consumer packaging waste
.

Although PP is a commonly used food packaging material worldwide, unlike PET bottles, etc.
, post-consumer PP packaging is not widely recycled in traditional mechanical recycling infrastructures
.

Therefore, the current food-grade recycled PP is currently limited to advanced recycling technology processes
.

Project NextLoopp, initiated and led by sustainability consultancy Nextek, is a two-year multi-participation project to form a closed loop for food-grade rPP
.
The project is based on sophisticated decontamination techniques combined with the use of an innovative fluorescent marker sorting technology called Prism
.

A group involved in the full value chain is participating in this project
.
The latest of these is Unilever
.

Unilever has pledged to halve the use of virgin plastic in its packaging and, through its "Less, Good, No" plastic framework, will completely eliminate 100,000 tonnes of plastic by 2025 as a push to transition to a circular economy guiding principles
.

Sanjeev Das, global director of packaging for Unilever Food & Beverage, said: "Opening up a mechanical recycling pathway to produce food-grade rPP will help advance our efforts to keep plastics in the loop and away from the environment
.
"

Nextek founder Professor Edward Kosior said Unilever, a company committed to bringing sustainability and circularity to its many products, was a welcome player
.

"We look forward to achieving our goal of creating a long-term solution for PP packaging, so consumers can be confident that participating in recycling is contributing to humanity as a whole
.
"