Ineos invests in technology to design recyclable flexible packaging film

Ineos Olefins & Polymers Europe has invested in multilayer, blown line technology with machine direction orientation (MDO) supplied by Hosokawa Alpine, an equipment manufacturer based in Augsburg, Germany. The company says the technology will enable it to work with converters, brands and retailers to develop easy, more recyclable flexible packaging film.  

The investment also creates the potential to prevent about 1 million tons of waste per year from being sent to landfill or incineration.  

Using the multilayer, blown line technology with MDO, Ineos and partners will work together to develop, design and produce polyethylene and polypropylene-based flexible packaging film using fewer polymers, increasing the recyclability of the product.  

Ineos says flexible packaging films are a low carbon solution for transporting food and other goods and they increase food shelf life, helping consumers manage household bills. However, today’s multimaterial products combine polymers from different chemical families, making them difficult to recycle.  

MDO heats and stretches polymer films to improve their physical and barrier properties, enabling them to be used in different product applications. Ineos says it is the only raw material supplier to have invested in an inline MDO-multilayer line from Hosokawa Alpine.   

The line will be installed in Ineos’ research and development labs in Brussels, Belgium, in 2023. There Ineos will develop mono-material flexible film packaging products. Ineos says it will leverage this capability and its expertise in resin design to work alongside partners on new generations of resins engineered for flexible packaging products.  

“This investment is further evidence of our commitment to taking action across the value chain to create a more sustainable future,” says Rob Ingram, CEO of Ineos O&P Europe North. “Flexible packaging films keep our food fresh and safe to eat, but we recognize and share people’s concerns about plastic waste.”  

Other examples of action being taken across the value chain include:  

• building Project One, the most environmentally sustainable cracker in Europe and the largest investment in the European chemical sector in a generation;  

• conducting a feasibility study into the construction of a 100-megawatt water electrolysis plant for producing green hydrogen at the company’s site in Cologne that could cut carbon dioxide emissions by more than 100,000 metric tons annually; and

• launching the Recycl-IN polymer range, which compounds postconsumer recycled plastic with new highly engineered virgin polymers to meet the demand for recycled products that meet high-performance specifications.