EU has set the target of 50% material recycling of plastics packaging by 2025. The Norwegian Retailers’ Environmental Fund goes further and wants to contribute to achieving that 50% of all plastic waste are material recycled within 2025. Norner and Mepex have been given challenge to generate the knowledge base on how to achieve this ambitious target.

- We look forward to enabling the plastics industry to be in the forefront of meeting future demands from end-users and society with respect to increased use of high quality recycled plastic materials, says Thor Kamfjord, Director Sustainable Development at Norner.

In the preparation of the knowledge base it will be important to find solutions to keep the resources in a circular economy and secure that recycled materials are used for manufacturing of new products. To increase the use of recycled plastics, insight on technology and market opportunities for increased material recycling and use of recycled plastics is needed. The producers need to be confident that recycled plastics meet the product requirements with respect to quality and durability.

Norner and Mepex will cooperate with the plastics industry and end-users who want to use recycled plastics in their products and will map the potential for use of recyclates in Norwegian plastics production. We will also evaluate relevant technologies which can enable required quality and quantity and propose a rational national infrastructure for management of plastic waste to achieve the targets.

The project will in addition establish closed loops and demonstrate new solutions for increased use of recycled flexible packaging for the industry.

- We have a long time been eager to move forward and develop innovative solutions where cooperation across industries makes closed loops possible for eg. industrial shipping sacks and pallet wrapping. Examples of such solutions exist already and now we have the possibility to bringing companies together, scale-up and demonstrate that if you can dream it – you can do it,  says Ole Jan Myhre, Market Manager and flexible packaging specialist at Norner.

- Recently Norner joined the European Plastics Pact, and this project is one of many examples where we cooperate with the plastics value chain to stimulate the development of innovative solutions and exchange best practices to accelerate the transition to a circular plastics economy in Europe. The cooperation with the Norwegian Retailers’ Environmental Fund makes it possible to get more speed – and this is just what the industry needs, says Kjetil Larsen, CEO at Norner.