Ramp-up in food-grade recycled plastics necessary

Targets set by brand owners and regulators have been contributing to growing demand for recycled plastics globally, particularly for use in food and beverage packaging. However, the supply of high-quality food-grade recycled polymers remain limited. Challenges include, among others, low volume and quality of postconsumer scrap, costly sorting and washing technologies to eliminate contaminants and the need of approvals from governmental agencies.

Countries have their own local agencies that, among other responsibilities, control and supervise materials used in contact with food. Two central agencies widely recognized are the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Their main safety concerns are related to possible contaminants from postconsumer scrap that can be harmful to human health if they remain in resins that will be used in making packaging that will be in contact with food. Any material, including virgin polymers, must be regulated for food-contact use, thus, the same principle applies to recyclate.

The process

Companies that wish to use recycled plastic for a food-contact application in the U.S. must submit a description of the scrap source and the recycling process, results of tests that prove the process removes potential contaminants and a proposal of use conditions in the final application, such as temperature, type of food and duration of the contact. Full guidance is published on FDA’s website.

Once submitted, the FDA then evaluates each proposal, case by case, and provides companies with a letter of no objection (LNO), which is a recommendation as to whether the recycling process is likely to produce plastic that is appropriate for food-contact purposes.

The EFSA evaluation of recycling processes requires companies to prepare a dossier along with a request for authorization of the use of recycled plastics in food-contact materials to one of the EU member states’ (MS) competent authorities. EFSA receives the dossier from the EU MS, evaluates it and then provides an opinion on the safety of the recycled plastic given its intended use. The EFSA opinion is then used by the EU MS to grant or reject authorization of the recycled plastic.

The dossier must follow EFSA guidance that includes a description of the recycling process showing critical parameters, such as temperature, pressure, process duration and other operative details, and the characterization of input focusing on qualification and evaluation of suppliers, origin of the feedstock, traceability and the ability to prevent entry of nonsuitable materials into the input stream. Also included are the results of challenge tests to demonstrate the decontamination efficiency of the recycling process, characterization of the end recycled plastic product, its intended application in food contact and compliance with relevant provisions on food-contact materials.

“Apart from evaluating whether the recycling process can reduce contaminants to levels that do not pose a risk to human health, EFSA also monitors whether the material changes the food composition, taste and odor in an unacceptable way. And unlike the FDA, EFSA requires that no more than 5 percent of the plastic waste input used for recycling comes from nonfood-contact applications,” says Carolina Perujo Holland, ICIS plastic recycling analyst, EMEA.

Insufficient supply

Food-grade resins currently represent only 10 percent of the global annual capacity of recycled polymers of more than 45 million metric tons, according to ICIS Mechanical Recycling Supply Tracker. The research includes recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET), recycled polyethylene (rPE), and recycled polypropylene (rPP).

However, the food-grade availability varies extensively among the resins, as represented in the following chart. Slightly more than 20 percent of rPET capacity globally is food grade in comparison with only 3 percent of polyolefins.

This difference is a result of usage of each polymer in different applications, where PET resin is used predominantly in food packaging compared with other polymers, thereby increasing the available postconsumer feedstocks for recycling back into food-grade recycled polymer. In addition, currently, some countries allow the use of recycled plastics in food-contact applications, but many others do not, and this can vary by polymer also. This is the case in Brazil, where the National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA) only authorizes food-grade rPET.

Source: ICIS, Recycling Supply Tracker – Mechanical, 2021

No country-specific regulation explicitly allows or prohibits the use of recycled plastics in food applications in Asia, except for Japan; hence, the lack of any regional agency equivalent to FDA and EFSA. However, recent developments in Korea, China and Thailand indicate food packaging applications using recycled materials could emerge.

Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety revised legislation allowing the use of rPET and recycled polyethylene naphthalate (rPEN) in food-contact materials as part of multilayer structures. Thailand’s Food and Drug Administration is considering permitting the use of rPET and rHDPE for food-contact applications. China’s National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment (CFSA) agency is initiating a risk assessment method for recycled food-contact materials.

“Although the EU has set recycled content targets under the Single-Use Plastic (SUP) Directive, which is one of the main factors driving demand for recycled plastics in the region, many EU countries have not always encouraged the use of food-grade recycled plastic in food-contact applications. Italy only approved the use of more than 50 percent nonvirgin material in PET plastic bottles in 2020,” Perujo Holland says.  

Historically, the European food-grade recycled polyolefin market has had difficulty growing because the level of investment was not seen to carry sufficient returns. The U.K. is the only successful example of food-grade recycled HDPE with EFSA positive opinion because of the discrete collection stream for postconsumer HDPE milk bottles used as its feedstock. The remaining EFSA positive opinions for food-grade recycled polyolefins are for closed-loop processing PP and HDPE transit packaging.

From the regional perspective, although Asia Pacific is the largest producer of recycled resins alone, accounting for almost 45 percent of the global capacity, the region’s food-grade resins only represent nearly 5 percent of the region’s total recycling capacity, while the United States and Europe have a share of 20 percent and 10 percent, respectively.

Reasons behind that include the fact that the largest recycling end market in Asia is fiber, which is not required to be food grade. In Europe, for instance, sheet and food-contact bottles are the largest end markets using rPET from postconsumer bottles, with a share of the total rPET supply of 38 percent and 32 percent, respectively, in 2019. In the United States, food-contact bottles have been gaining space in the market supply of rPET, growing from a 21 percent share in 2018 to 28 percent in 2019, while fiber reduced from 47 percent to 41 percent year over year.

Source: ICIS, Recycling Supply Tracker – Mechanical, 2021

FDA LNOs and EFSA positive opinions are internationally recognized high standards for food-contact plastic recycled material throughout the industry and allow companies with these accreditations outside the U.S. and EU to potentially trade with them.

FDA is the largest agency alone with almost 35 percent of the global registered recycling food-grade capacity, whereas EFSA represents slightly more than 20 percent. While EFSA is more prevalent in Europe, FDA is more widely used internationally, as represented in the following graph. One of the main reasons for that is the fact that the process, including traceability of feedstocks to meet the 95 percent food-contact origin source, to obtain a EFSA positive opinion is challenging for some suppliers and is not a requirement of FDA.

Source: ICIS, Recycling Supply Tracker – Mechanical, 2021

Market drivers

End markets for packaging with recycled content are driven, among others, by brand owners, regulation, industry associations and consumers.

The EU has mandated the industry to include 25 percent recycled content in PET bottles by 2025 and 30 percent in all plastic bottles by 2030 under the Single-Use Plastics (SUP) Directive. Likewise, in California, manufacturers are required to include an annual average of 15 percent of postconsumer resin (PCR) in beverage containers starting in 2022. By 2025 the mandate is set to increase to 25 percent and by 2030 to 50 percent. Also, Washington state recently announced a schedule for PCR requirements for different product categories, starting with beverage containers and trash bags in 2023, adding certain household cleaning and personal care products in 2025 and expanding to dairy milk containers in 2028.

In addition to legislation, several brand owners have been setting voluntary targets following the lead of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation Global Commitment which aims to have 25 percent PCR content in plastic packaging by 2025. Many global PET beverage bottle brands have even set sustainability targets beyond those required, averaging at 50 percent rPET by 2025 in Europe. Even extending to 100 percent rPET content in some European markets in time frames earlier than 2025. To fulfil their targets, companies need to source recycled resins, and applications such as beverage containers and primary food packaging require high-quality food-grade recycled resins, which are currently limited. Investment is needed in collection systems, consumer education and recycling capabilities to increase the global supply of recyclates to reach industry targets.

Chemical recycling complimentary

In the long-term, chemical recycling can be a potential complementary solution to mechanical recycling to secure supply of recycled resins suitable for food-contact applications. The industry has high expectations for the higher volumes of feedstock that chemical recycling can process, in addition to its source, as any scrap stream potentially could be used, including films and flexible packaging. Recycled resins produced through chemical recycling have near-identical properties to virgin and as such are not subject to food-contact regulation restrictions.

However, despite current investments in chemical recycling facilities, ICIS expects that industrial scale might not be achieved before the 2030 deadlines for mandates and sustainability-related pledges. Moreover, the magnitude of its environmental impact as well as its legal status are unclear.

Immediate measures are needed to improve collection rates and sorted fractions while reducing contamination in the recycling stream, in addition to mid and long-term solutions, such as regulations and technologies. Including a review of the criteria around the food safety regulations, such as the 95 percent feedstock origin, which presents more challenges for polymers that have lower concentrations of food-contact material from origin in their overall waste stream.

Paula Leardini is a senior analyst, plastic recycling, the Americas at ICIS. Carolina Perujo Holland, is an analyst, plastic recycling at ICIS. Helen McGeough, is a senior analyst at ICIS. London-based ICIS provides market intelligence that helps businesses in the energy, petrochemical and fertilizer industries. More information is available at www.icis.com.