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The Quest for Quality: Scaling Advanced Mechanical Recycling to Meet Recycled Content Targets for Flexibles
The Quest for Quality explores how advanced mechanical recycling can help transform household flexible plastic waste into high-quality recyclates for demanding packaging applications. Drawing on lessons from the ValueFlex project, the report outlines the technical, economic, and market conditions needed to scale these solutions.
The Pathway to High-Quality Flexible Plastic Recycling
The Quest for Quality demonstrates that post-household flexible plastic packaging waste can be transformed into high-quality recyclates suitable for demanding applications using existing advanced mechanical recycling technologies. Drawing on insights from the ValueFlex project, the report provides a practical blueprint for scaling advanced mechanical recycling and improving the circularity of flexible plastics.
The report also highlights the complementary roles of advanced mechanical and chemical recycling, with each pathway suited to different waste streams and end-market applications.
At the same time, it makes clear that technology alone will not unlock scale. Policy support, financing mechanisms, and sustained demand for recycled materials are all critical to enabling investment and infrastructure development
By sharing the lessons from ValueFlex, The Quest for Quality offers practical insights for recyclers, brands, investors, and policymakers working to accelerate high-quality recycling and circularity for flexible plastic packaging.
Access the blueprint
The engineering details of the plant configuration are available for download. These include:
- Process flow diagrams
- Plant and process description
- Basis of design and guidelines
- Mass balances and utility requirements
- Layout drawings
- Business case and value engineering summary