NEXTLOOPP, a project launched by Nextek Ltd. in October 2020, has announced Bostik as its 50th participant. The multi-participant project continues to develop new ways to create food-grade and INRT-grade recycled polypropylene (rPP) from post-consumer packaging waste.

The project entails separating food-grade PP from the rest using the cutting-edge technology PolyPPRISM^TM to identify and sort pack variants from butter tubs and yogurt containers, to coffee pouches and detergent bottles in any plastic type.

NEXTLOOPP decontaminates the polymers to ensure compliance with food-grade standards in the UK, EU and the United States using patented PPristine^TM technology. The polymer is reduced back into food-grade recyclates ready to be included in new food-grade PP packaging.

NEXTLOOPP’s 50 participants have been selected to represent the entire PP supply chain. Brand-owners, suppliers, universities, industry associations, and PP end-users have joined the common goal to close the loop on one of the most converted polymers among all plastic waste. In 2018 PP’s market share was about 20%, yet PP is the least recycled polymer.

“Bostik’s commitment to help build a more sustainable world, in this instance by improving recycling stream effectiveness, resonates with NEXTLOOPP’s objective to ensure every aspect of packaging design is as sustainable as possible,” said Professor Edward Kosior, founder and CEO of Nextek Ltd. and NEXTLOOPP. Adhesives play a fundamental role in recycling, as glue residues can’t be filtered out and must be completely removed from the pack. Bostik offers high tech solutions to avoid glues leaching into recycled plastics, and we are delighted to welcome Bostik’s extensive expertise in adhesives to solve these challenges.”

“We appreciate the opportunity to participate in NEXTLOOPP and support its overall objective to demonstrate circular recycling for PP food trays,” said Eric Parois, Bostik’s global market director for Label and Narrow Web Technologies. “In particular, because it is focused on PP, NEXTLOOPP complements what we are working on for PET and HDPE circular recycling, providing us with a new avenue to explore how Bostik laminating adhesives, seal and reseal PP tray lidding adhesives and PP tray wash-off label adhesives can bring forward 100% recyclable solutions as we work together to decrease virgin plastic consumption.”

The multi-participant project continues trialing and advancing its cleaning, sorting, and decontamination technologies in a lead-up to implementation at a commercial scale. 

To learn more about the NEXTLOOPP project, visit www.nextloopp.com.

To learn more about Nextek and Bostik visit, www.nextek.org and www.bostik.com.