FPA conducts successful resource recovery trials

The Flexible Packaging Association (FPA) has carried out a series of pilot studies that show it is possible to produce useful end products from pre- and post-consumer flexible packaging waste.
 
As part of its Flexible Packaging Waste Resource Recovery Program, launched in 2010, FPA is looking to evaluate end-of-life options for difficult to recycle flexible packaging waste. 

During the recent pilot program, new and emerging resource recovery technologies were utilized to convert flexible packaging scrap and waste into materials that can be used as energy, including patented resource recovery processes used by Agilyx Corporation, Climax Global Energy, Dongara and Eviron.  FPA was able to produce synthetic crude oil, condensed wax, fuel pellets and combustible gases from pre- and post-consumer flexible packaging.
 
FPA also received help from upcycling and mechanical recycling specialist TerraCycle, which provides free waste collection programs for hard to recycle materials and donated 2,000lbs of post-consumer waste to the pilot scheme.  FPA said the collection of post-consumer waste was a challenge for it to completing the trials, and that the mix of packages donated by TerraCycle roughly mirrored the global consumer flexible packaging volume mix with an assortment of EVOH, foil, PE, PP and PET.
 
Full details of the pilot study are available in FPA’s Flexible Packaging Resource Recovery Alternatives to Landfill: Pilot Program Report, which is available to the association’s members on its website.