Coveris announces that at Plastics Recycling Show Europe 2026 it will focus on the practical implementation of a circular economy for plastic packaging using three complementary recycling technologies: mechanical, chemical and solvent-based. The company stresses that closing the loop requires both collaboration across the entire value chain and selecting the right recycling technology for each product and the required quality level of post-consumer recycled material.
As a packaging manufacturer, Coveris works with customers on solutions that meet demanding technical and regulatory criteria. Integrating post-consumer recyclate into packaging structures is not limited to purchasing secondary raw materials, but requires ensuring appropriate quality, stable performance characteristics and predictable processing. In response to these challenges, the company has established the ReCover unit, which consolidates recycling capabilities, technology investments and strategic partnerships. ReCover’s activities cover packaging waste streams from industrial, medical, home care and personal care as well as food applications.
Philipp Niehues, Business Development Director at Coveris and Head of ReCover, underlines the importance of a diversified approach: "We are not committing to just one approach. Closing the loop means deploying the right recycling method for each application. Mechanical, chemical and solvent-based recycling are complementary tools."
Mechanical recycling as the core of the strategy
Mechanical recycling remains a central element of Coveris’ packaging circularity strategy. In cooperation with Interzero, an environmental services provider, the packaging manufacturer aims to ensure that recycled materials exhibit consistent performance properties in demanding industrial applications and in the home and personal care segment.
To address growing customer demand for secondary raw materials, Coveris has invested in advanced de-inking technology, enabling the production of higher-quality recyclates. At PRSE 2026, the company plans to showcase applications based on post-consumer recyclates, including bottle sleeves, tissue overwrap and industrial films.
Solvent-based recycling and food-contact applications
In parallel, Coveris is developing projects in the field of solvent-based recycling. In the United Kingdom, a pilot plant for COtooClean technology is being implemented in cooperation with Nextek. This solution is intended to enable the purification of complex polyolefin streams, which in the longer term is expected to support the development of packaging applications potentially suitable for food contact.
The use of solvent-based recycling is targeted primarily at more complex packaging structures, where standard mechanical recycling does not provide the required material purity or polymer composition homogeneity. Purification of polyolefins in solvent processes is intended to enable an increased share of recyclate in products while maintaining the required quality parameters.
The role of chemical recycling in the medical sector
In highly regulated market segments, such as healthcare packaging, Coveris points to the important role of chemical recycling. Together with Sabic, Zuyderland Medical Centre, Artivion and other partners, the company has carried out a proof-of-concept demonstration of a closed loop for hospital waste. The project, presented at the Compamed 2025 trade fair, involved converting medical waste from a hospital facility into new medical packaging using mass balance principles.
The use of chemical recycling in this area is intended to convert difficult-to-recycle medical waste into feedstock that can be reused in packaging, while meeting stringent safety requirements and regulations governing material contact with medical products.
Combining technologies and partnerships at PRSE 2026
In its communication related to PRSE 2026, Coveris highlights the need to use different recycling technologies in parallel and to expand cooperation along the value chain. As Philipp Niehues summarises: "At PRSE, we send a clear message: circularity is not about choosing sides. It is about combining technologies, strengthening partnerships and designing packaging that performs today and in a resource-constrained tomorrow."
Visitors to Plastics Recycling Show Europe 2026 will be able to learn about the technologies, cooperation models and specific customer solutions presented by the company at the Coveris booth G116. The event will take place on 5–6 May 2026 at the RAI Amsterdam exhibition centre in the Netherlands.
