ReVentas, a Scottish company active in advanced recycling, has announced that it is joining the HG2030 – Circular Packaging initiative, a pan-European consortium focused on demonstrating the economic viability of using intelligently sorted, high-quality recyclates in food-contact packaging applications. The company develops dissolution purification technology for polyethylene and polypropylene, and within the project it will focus on the market-demonstration stream dedicated to rigid PP food packaging. This segment is identified as one of the most difficult to recycle to the quality level required for food contact. The aim of the cooperation is to combine the precise sorting available through the HG2030 infrastructure with ReVentas’s patented purification process in order to demonstrate that coloured and contaminated post-consumer rigid PP waste can return to the packaging supply chain as a polymer with purity comparable to newly produced resin.
ReVentas CEO Tom Rose said: "Joining HG2030 is a defining step for ReVentas. The programme’s intelligent sorting infrastructure, powered by digital watermarking, gives us the clean, well-characterised feedstock our technology needs to deliver food-grade polypropylene at industrial scale. Together, we aim to demonstrate that a circular economy for rigid PP food packaging does not have to remain a distant ambition, but may soon become achievable."
From HolyGrail 2.0 to market demonstration
HG2030 – Circular Packaging is the successor to the HolyGrail 2.0 programme, carried out on the initiative of AIM, the European Brands Association. This new phase is intended to move from research trials, which demonstrated the effectiveness of sorting using digital watermarking, to market demonstrations related to the implementation of the concept. The initiative is directly linked to the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, PPWR, which sets recycled content requirements for plastic packaging from 1 January 2030.
Dissolution purification technology for PP and PE
ReVentas’s proprietary technology uses a solvent to dissolve PP and PE at low temperatures and low pressure. In this process, contaminants are removed, including colour pigments, printing inks, odours, additives and multilayer structure components. The result is intended to be a clean, homogeneous resin that replicates the properties of virgin polymer and can be used in demanding food-contact applications. The company also states that the process provides an estimated 80% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions compared with the production of virgin plastics.
The gap between sorting and food-contact quality
According to the information provided, the partnership is intended to address a significant gap in the European packaging value chain. Mechanical recycling makes it possible to sort and regranulate PP waste into high-quality fractions, but a significant portion of the waste stream remains low quality and is directed to downcycling. The approach developed by ReVentas, based on dissolution and purification, is intended to handle those feedstock fractions that cannot be mechanically recycled to food-contact quality. According to the company, this may lead to higher material yields while meeting the regulatory requirements imposed on food packaging converters and brands.
