The HolyGrail 2.0 initiative has now successfully validated its watermark technology in combination with near-infrared in the Hündgen Entsorgung material recovery plant in North Rhine-Westphalia in an industrial environment.
Sorting with the provider's digital watermark technology Digimarc and the add-on module from the machine manufacturer Pellenc ST was subjected to various tests in the material recovery plant. The trials were conducted with real waste streams, topped up with additional quantities of digitally watermarked PP film and LDPE film from brand manufacturers Essity, Kraft Heinz, PepsiCo and Procter & Gamble. The focus was on sorting flexible packaging to produce specific types of output fractions from a mixed waste stream - food-safe PP films and hygienic PE films.
Of these, over 95 per cent were detected in one pass, more than 85 per cent were sorted and with a purity of over 70 per cent. Even with heavily contaminated and fragmented streams Including rigid material and high throughput, almost 90 per cent was detected, 75 per cent sorted and with a purity of around 88 per cent.
Sorting test with rigid packaging
The results achieved enable the creation of new, higher quality recycling streams with an efficiency that is currently not possible with other technologies. In order to achieve the binding EU targets for the use of recycled plastic in packaging by 2030 Significant changes required along the entire value chain, especially for manufacturers and retailers who use plastic packaging. New technological advances are available to fulfil these requirements and offer Opportunities for the circular economy in the packaging sector.
At the same site, the team is preparing for the start of a three-month sorting trial of rigid packaging with digital watermarks supplied by various HG2.0 member companies. were launched on the Danish and German markets. This is supported by two fully functional prototypes, which were jointly developed by Pellenc ST and Digimarc and are to be installed at Hündgen Entsorgung's commercial sorting plant.
If the test is successful, the technology's ability to recognise and sort in an industrial environment and the robustness of the system will be further validated, that the watermark-based sorting has reached TRL 9 and has therefore proven itself in an operational environment.
Further recycling attempts
Two industrial-scale recycling trials with the sorted material will then conclude phase 3: The testing of the PP films and the flexible PE fractions collected at Hündgen Entsorgung, is carried out by Borealis, while testing of the separate non-food PET bottle stream from the rigid bottle trial will take place at a different location.
