Recycling of Plastic Packaging: What Austria Needs to Do Better

According to the EU Packaging Regulation, which came into force in February, half of plastic packaging should be recycled by 2025. Currently, the recycling rate in Austria is only 25 percent, mainly limited to PET bottles. Particularly problematic are polyolefins such as polyethylene and polypropylene, of which only 13.5 percent are recycled.

Mixed plastics cause problems in recycling

Yogurt cups and detergent bottles, for example, are made from such plastics. These are often combined to make them suitable for proper packaging and to prevent water vapor or oxygen from passing through, according to the packaging technologist: "From the moment you mix plastics, you can no longer separate them normally mechanically." Additionally, they are sometimes heavily printed or have glued paper labels. "Their fiber residues disturb the mechanical properties of the reprocessed plastic immensely," said Apprich. Packaging designers should therefore pay more attention to ensuring that their creations are easily recyclable. "For example, it would help a lot if the cap of a detergent bottle is made from the same material as the rest of the bottle," she explained: "This avoids mixing materials and eliminates the need for laborious separation."

Recycling of plastic packaging: "Recyclates" also cause problems

The fact that both food like yogurt and chemicals like detergent are filled into polyolefins causes additional problems. "Detergents contain an enormous amount of fragrances and aromas that penetrate the plastic of the packaging and remain there," she said: "You can no longer effectively remove them and the classic detergent smells from the material." This means that without expensive hot washing or vacuum deodorization, the recycled plastic can no longer be used for food packaging, otherwise the yogurt inside would "smell" like fresh laundry.

In the future, food and non-food packaging could perhaps be separated in recycling streams with the help of artificial intelligence (AI), according to Apprich: "In an experiment we recently conducted, however, the AI was not yet consistently capable of doing so." "For these plastics, the safety assessment is also not as clear as, for example, with PET bottles," said the expert: "This means it is not yet entirely certain whether nothing from their recyclates can migrate into the food that could potentially be harmful to health."

EU target for recycling plastic packaging currently unattainable

The specified 50 percent recycling rate for plastics is "already very high as a target," she explained. A lot would have to change and be invested for this. Such investments would be difficult to manage because packaging must cost very little, so a food wrapper should remain "in the cent range." However, there is clearly a lot of room for improvement here: "Austria is at the lower end in Europe," reported Apprich. Thus, it is unlikely that the 55 percent plastic recycling rate required by the EU from 2030 will be reached quickly.

The 18th Research Forum of Austrian Universities of Applied Sciences (FH) will take place on May 7 and 8 at the FH Campus Vienna on the topic "Doing Research - Shaping the Future." FH researchers from all over Austria will present their work on topics such as artificial intelligence, resource-efficient construction, equitable healthcare, sustainable tourism, and the difficulties with polyolefin packaging.

(APA/Red)

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