Henkel has turned to Mondi to develop a solution that would allow the use of a greater share of recycled plastic in the laminate of flexible packaging for laundry detergents, without losing functionality and aesthetics.
Henkel has been marketing
Megapearls laundry detergent powder for a long time in a “quadro seal bag “ (a thin and flexible laminate based on OPP/PE, with a shiny and resistant appearance) and, currently, already 30% of the PE layer of the packaging consists of material derived from production waste recovered from the Mondi works at Halle (D). This means that the overall packaging structure currently contains about 10% of regrind material, a share that could rise to 50% in the two companies’ plans.
The project has been made possible by resin recovery technology, developed in the Halle plant, which allows Mondi to collect and separate not only transparent and white materials but also those that do not contain fluidifying agents, obtaining a regranulate that does not negatively impact the specifications of the material and the mechanical properties of the product.
The OPP film supplier was also involved in the project, that in turn will have to increase the percentage of recovered material. The environmental advantages are evident, both in terms of consumption of raw materials and recycling of the product.
