Recycling packaging materials R. Franz and f. welle, fraunhofer Institute for process engineering and Packaging, Germany 23.1 Introduction Food packaging is a still growing market. As a consequence, the demand to re-use post-consumer packaging materials grows as well. Recycling of packaging materials plays an increasing role in packaging, and numerous applications can already be found on the market. Ten or twenty years ago most post-consumer packaging waste was going into landfill sites or to incineration. Traditionally, only glass and paper/board were recycled into new applications. In the case of packaging plastics the situation is quite different. Only uncontaminated in-house production waste was collected, ground and recycled into the feedstream of the packaging production line without further decontamination. With increasing environmental demands, however, post-consumer plastics packaging materials have also been considered more and more for recycling into new packaging A closed-loop recycling for packaging plastics is also supported by public pressure. The packaging and filling companies have to take responsibility for their packaging materials and environmental concerns. In many countries the consumer, government and the packaging companies want to have packaging materials with a more favourable ecobalance in the supermarkets. A more favourable ecobalance can be achieved with different approaches. One of these approaches is the re-use of recycled material in packaging. This development is driven by the recent strong increase in polyethylene terephthalate(PET) bottles used for soft drinks, water and other foodstuffs. Today, many filling companies have decided to start using recycled plastics into their PET bottles in the near future But recycling of packing plastics is also a question of recycling technology and collection of packaging waste. Today many countries have established23.1 Introduction Food packaging is a still growing market. As a consequence, the demand to re-use post-consumer packaging materials grows as well. Recycling of packaging materials plays an increasing role in packaging, and numerous applications can already be found on the market. Ten or twenty years ago most post-consumer packaging waste was going into landfill sites or to incineration. Traditionally, only glass and paper/board were recycled into new applications. In the case of packaging plastics the situation is quite different. Only uncontaminated in-house production waste was collected, ground and recycled into the feedstream of the packaging production line without further decontamination. With increasing environmental demands, however, post-consumer plastics packaging materials have also been considered more and more for recycling into new packaging. A closed-loop recycling for packaging plastics is also supported by public pressure. The packaging and filling companies have to take responsibility for their packaging materials and environmental concerns. In many countries the consumer, government and the packaging companies want to have packaging materials with a more favourable ecobalance in the supermarkets. A more favourable ecobalance can be achieved with different approaches. One of these approaches is the re-use of recycled material in packaging. This development is driven by the recent strong increase in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles used for soft drinks, water and other foodstuffs.1 Today, many filling companies have decided to start using recycled plastics into their PET bottles in the near future. But recycling of packing plastics is also a question of recycling technology and collection of packaging waste. Today many countries have established 23 Recycling packaging materials R. Franz and F. Welle, Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging, Germany