Flexible plastic packaging remains one of the more difficult packaging waste streams to recycle at high value, but a new report from the Alliance to End Plastic Waste argues that advanced mechanical recycling can produce recyclates suitable for demanding packaging applications.

The Alliance’s Quest for Quality report, published in June 2026, draws on the ValueFlex initiative developed with CEFLEX, Roland Berger and HTP Engineering. The work examined whether post-consumer household flexible packaging could be processed into material suitable for applications such as films, pouches and labels.

The project did not ultimately result in construction of the proposed recycling facility, but the technical and economic work provides a detailed picture of what would be required to scale higher-quality mechanical recycling for flexible plastics.

Existing Technology Can Produce Higher-Quality Recyclate

According to the report, combinations of advanced sorting, washing, filtration and extrusion technologies can process household flexible plastic waste into recycled material suitable for more demanding film applications.

The Alliance says this could support packaging containing 30% or more recycled content in selected applications.

That is significant because flexible plastic recycling has traditionally been associated with lower-value outlets such as refuse sacks, plastic lumber and construction products.

Producing material capable of returning to packaging applications would move the sector closer to closed-loop recycling rather than simply redirecting flexible plastics into lower-value products.

However, the report makes an important distinction: the technical capability exists, but the commercial conditions needed to deploy it widely remain difficult.

Flexible Packaging Creates a More Complex Recycling Stream

Flexible packaging provides high performance with relatively little material, but that efficiency creates challenges after use.

Many pouches, films and wraps combine different polymers, inks, adhesives and barrier layers to provide moisture, oxygen, grease or light protection.

Those structures can be difficult to separate during recycling.

Even packaging designed around a single polymer family still needs to be collected and sorted by factors such as polymer type, colour and contamination level before higher-quality recycling becomes possible.

Flexible films can also behave differently from rigid plastics inside sorting facilities because of their thin, lightweight form.

This is why improving recyclability at the package-design stage is only one part of the solution. Collection, sorting and processing infrastructure also need to evolve.

Advanced Mechanical Recycling Adds More Processing Steps

Conventional mechanical recycling generally involves sorting, washing, melting and extrusion.

Advanced mechanical recycling builds on the same principle without fundamentally changing the polymer’s chemical structure, but introduces more sophisticated processing to improve material quality.

The Alliance highlights technologies including:

• Sensor-based sorting
• More granular polymer separation
• Hot washing
• Improved contaminant removal
• Double-melt filtration
• Controlled extrusion

The objective is to remove enough contamination and separate the waste stream precisely enough to produce a recycled polymer that can meet tighter packaging specifications.

The Alliance sees this approach as complementary to other technologies rather than a replacement for them. Chemical and solvent-based recycling may be better suited to certain fractions or applications, particularly where very high purity requirements apply.

Upstream Sorting Could Improve Recycling Economics

One of the report’s more practical recommendations concerns where flexible plastics should be sorted.

Rather than requiring every recycling plant to receive mixed material and perform extensive separation itself, the Alliance proposes greater use of centralized Plastics Recovery Facilities (PRFs).

These facilities could sit between conventional material recovery facilities and individual recyclers.

The idea is to separate flexible plastic waste into cleaner and more consistent polymer streams before it reaches the recycling plant.

That could reduce the quantity of unsuitable material transported to recyclers and allow individual facilities to specialize in particular feedstocks and end products.

For recyclers, feedstock consistency matters because producing higher-quality recycled resin requires greater control over incoming material than traditional commodity recycling.

Brownfield Plants Could Lower Capital Requirements

Capital investment is another barrier.

The ValueFlex analysis examined a proposed advanced mechanical recycling facility with capacity of around 50,000 tonnes per year.

According to the report findings provided by the Alliance, civil infrastructure such as buildings, warehousing, roads and utilities represents a substantial part of the investment required for a new site.

One route to expansion could therefore be the modernization of existing recycling facilities rather than constructing every plant from scratch.

Upgrading brownfield sites or replacing older processing lines could lower initial capital requirements while using established utilities, buildings and logistics infrastructure.

For recycling companies, this may provide a more practical route to adding advanced sorting and extrusion capacity.

Virgin Polymer Prices Remain an Economic Barrier

The ValueFlex facility itself was not built, with difficult macroeconomic conditions and persistently low virgin polymer prices cited as important factors.

That highlights one of the central commercial challenges facing recycled plastics.

A technically superior recyclate still needs to compete economically with virgin resin.

When virgin polyethylene or polypropylene is inexpensive, recyclers investing in more complex sorting, washing and filtration can struggle to recover the additional cost through recycled-material pricing.

The Alliance therefore argues that advanced mechanical recycling cannot be scaled through technology investment alone.

Stable demand for recycled material is also required.

PPWR Creates Stronger Demand for Recycled Plastic

European regulation could provide part of that demand.

Under the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), minimum recycled-content requirements for plastic packaging begin from 2030, subject to the detailed timetable and exemptions contained in the regulation.

The requirements are not a single 35% target for every package.

By 2030, the regulation sets different minimum levels depending on packaging type. These include 30% for certain PET contact-sensitive packaging, 10% for other contact-sensitive plastic packaging, 30% for single-use plastic beverage bottles and 35% for other plastic packaging, with specified exemptions.

This distinction matters for flexible packaging producers because recycled-content requirements will vary according to the application and structure.

The PPWR also defines recyclability in a way that considers not only packaging design but also collection, sorting and recycling processes operating at scale.

EPR and Financing Could Support New Capacity

The Alliance identifies extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes, recycled-content mandates and access to lower-cost capital as important conditions for expanding advanced mechanical recycling.

EPR systems can help fund collection and sorting infrastructure, while recycled-content requirements can create more predictable demand for the resulting material.

Concessionary finance, grants or other investment support could reduce the risk associated with building first-of-a-kind or upgraded facilities.

The commercial logic is straightforward: recyclers are unlikely to invest heavily in higher-quality output unless there is confidence that converters and brand owners will purchase that material consistently.

Recyclers May Need to Change Their Business Model

The report also argues that producing higher-quality recyclate requires a shift away from a model focused primarily on processing the highest possible volume at the lowest cost.

Demanding packaging applications require tighter specifications.

That can mean:

• More detailed sorting
• Higher investment in processing technology
• Additional quality control
• Greater analytical capability
• Closer technical cooperation with converters
• More consistent long-term supply agreements

In this model, a recycler becomes less of a commodity waste processor and more of a material supplier working to specifications defined by packaging producers.

That relationship begins to resemble the way converters currently work with virgin polymer suppliers.

Flexible Plastic Circularity Requires the Whole Value Chain

The main conclusion from Quest for Quality is not that advanced mechanical recycling has solved the flexible-plastic waste problem.

Rather, the report indicates that the core processing technologies already exist, while the harder challenge is building a commercial system around them.

Collection needs to generate enough material. Sorting facilities need to separate it effectively. Recyclers need confidence to invest in higher-quality processing. Converters need consistent resin specifications, and brands need sufficient demand for recycled content.

Policy also influences each stage.

For packaging companies, this means future flexible packaging development will depend on more than choosing mono-material structures or reducing individual packaging components.

The recycling system around those packages will increasingly determine whether circularity targets can actually be achieved.

Advanced mechanical recycling appears capable of becoming one part of that system. The next challenge is making the economics, infrastructure and end-market demand strong enough for the technology to operate at commercial scale.

Last Updated on 12/08/2026 by Jota Machinery