NEFLEXAR: Development of new easily recyclable flexible structures

In the NEFLEXAR project, ITENE will develop various flexible packaging structures for the food sector, with the aim of optimizing and improving their mechanical and barrier properties while ensuring their recyclability.

Context

The Waste and Contaminated Soils for a Circular Economy Act and the Royal Decree on Packaging and Packaging Waste establish new sustainability requirements, including higher recycling rates. This implies that packaging solutions provide the necessary properties for their proper functionality without compromising their recyclability.

The use of multi-material structures in packaging applications can extend product shelf life and stability during storage by combining different materials. However, once used and turned into waste, these structures can pose management challenges due to difficulties in their identification, separation, and/or subsequent recycling or recovery.

One pathway to improve recyclability is the use of mono-material flexible packaging structures. However, these may encounter difficulties in achieving the target properties or technical requirements of the products they are intended to contain. Therefore, to enhance the properties of mono-material structures without affecting their end-of-life recyclability and without increasing environmental impact, it is necessary to pursue alternative developments that can be implemented using technologies already available in the industry, in order to deliver valid and functional short-term solutions.

Summary and objectives

The general objective of the NEFLEXAR project is to develop easily recyclable flexible plastic materials—using extrusion, coating application, and lamination technologies—to offer alternatives with mechanical and barrier properties equivalent to those of conventionally used multimaterial structures. The aim is to obtain sustainable materials that can be implemented by packaging converters, are cost-competitive, and validated for various flexible packaging applications in the food sector.

To this end, two lines of development will be pursued:

Use of coatings applied via standard coating techniques, based on commercial coating solutions that incorporate various additives to enhance their properties.
Extrusion-grade formulations to improve or modify conventional thermoplastic matrices through the use of additives. The goal is to reduce or eliminate layers and adhesives, thereby providing the structures with improved mechanical and barrier properties.

Accordingly, structures will be developed using conventional printing and lamination technologies that can be implemented at industrial scale by packaging converters.

These structures can also be used as materials for food packaging in specific segments such as snacks and nuts and fruit purée, among others. These packaging materials will have the advantage of being readily recyclable without diminishing either the technical requirements or the shelf life of the packaged product.

Initial press release

In the NEFLEXAR project, supported by IVACE, ITENE is focused on refining and enhancing the mechanical and barrier properties of these materials while ensuring their full recyclability.

Consult the press release here.

Results

Within the framework of the NEFLEXAR project, funded by IVACE+i, the technology centre has succeeded in improving the barrier properties, as well as the mechanical properties and processability of these materials, facilitating the transition towards more sustainable and efficient packaging.

The materials developed in NEFLEXAR feature optimised structures, reducing packaging complexity to ease management and enable effective recycling. This progress has been achieved through functional coatings that provide the required barrier and thermal-resistance properties for the optimal, efficient packaging of foods with differing characteristics and demands. In addition, the development of thermoplastic matrices in polyolefins has been optimised, improving their mechanical properties and their barrier performance against water vapour and oxygen.

Final press release

The NEFLEXAR project, funded by IVACE+i and carried out by ITENE between June 2023 and June 2024, has developed monomaterial flexible structures based on polyolefins—polypropylene (PP) or polyethylene (PE). The project’s main objective has been to generate recyclable materials with high barrier properties, mechanical strength, and processability, in compliance with recyclability regulations and sustainability trends.

Consult the press release here.