b'Increasing the use of recycled plastic is a musthelps to ensure a much better outcome than if each of those for the future. Focusing on the plastic found inlinks was to work alone. consumer packaging, in 2017 RISE founded aOne stand-out feature of this collaboration is the ambition to achieve common goals. Trioplasts involvement has enabled project that will lead to an increased share ofus to test new films in our own production, which has benefited recycled plastic in packagingand a substantialthe project immensely. At present, our films are 60% recycled, increase at that. It all began with an innovation20% biomass and 20% oil-based, says Bengta.competition that evolved into an innovativeStrict requirements for recycled materialcollaboration between RISE, Essity, ICA andThe core aim of the project was to conduct chemical analyses Trioplast. The result will be a closed loop foron the recycled material to see whether we were able to detect plastic use. The project is funded by Vinnova, theany regulated chemicals, as well as to examine the chemical Swedish government agency that administerscomposition of a larger number of batches from the supplier, says Kristin Geidenmark Olofsson, Innovation, Sustainability & state R&D funding. CSR Director at Trioplast. She explains that they have followed the strict requirements of the EU chemicals regulation REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of R ISE is a government research institute that offersChemicals) when conducting the tests. Testing the chemical hundreds of test and demonstration environments tocomposition of packaging is something quite new in the EU, so future-proof technologies, products and services. RISEthanks to this project we were actually the first to do this.also has the necessary expertise to find solutions thatOf course, the fact that we sell food affects the complexity will stand the test of time. surrounding the packaging. Food safety is top priority for us, and The project basically grew out of an innovation competitionso the material in the packaging must comply with all the strict in the summer of 2017. ICA and Essitys role was to specifyrequirements set by both us and the Swedish Food Agency, says the requirements for the recycled plastic that entrants were toJulia from ICA. submit. In the end, the German company RSH Polymer wonAs such, the outcome and results of the tests were positively and now supplies Trioplast with the material the company uses inreceived. its production, says Johan Landberg, a project manager at RISE. Weve tested placing recycled material in the middle layers of the packaging, and the tests showed no traces of chemicals. This Collaboration between research and industry ismeans that the recycled material that weve tested does in fact extremely important to the end result fulfil the applicable food requirements, and so it could be used in ICA is a major player in the Swedish food industry. This is ancertain types of food packaging, says Kristin from Trioplast.industry that generally has high ambitions when it comes to using recycled material in consumer packaging.Increased complexity with mixed materials in plastic By 2030, plastic packaging is to be made from recycled orrecyclingfossil-free material. This is a goal jointly set by the membersAt RISE, they test the materials mechanical properties, density, of the Swedish Food Retailers Federation, says Julia Losciale, afluidity and other factors that can affect its further processing packaging specialist at ICA with a focus on sustainability.and use in manufacturing. Julia notes that no action will be taken that could jeopardiseWe always use virgin material as the baseline, so if the food safety or negatively affect shelf life and result in increasedmaterial properties stay within the same range, or if theyre food waste, which in itself would impact the environmentacceptable for the intended purpose, then we can add more negatively. This is why its important to underpin developmentrecycled material to the plastic. The aim is to add as much with research, tests and collaboration between different marketrecycled material as possible while maintaining the same high playersjust like in this project, which was a joint collaborationquality, says Johan from RISE.between companies from different industries. He continues, explaining that consumer plastic discarded Weve collaborated with ICA for many years, and it was ICAas plastic packaging and recycled in Sweden varies in both that made contact when the Vinnova-funded project kickedquality and age. Some of it, for example, might be plastic that off, says Bengta Hallberg, Assortment Manager at Essity. Thathas been left outdoors for a long time, and then the material contact resulted in Trioplast, which is Essitys principal plasticbecomes brittle. supplier for its production facility in Lilla Edet, also joining theThis, and many other factors, affect the final quality. Here at project.RISE, we check for wear, inorganic compounds such as gravel Bengta explains that collaboration between researchers, theor small pieces of metal, and other debris that might have got customer, the paper producer and the film producer has resultedmixed in. All of this affects the wear on production equipment at in ideal conditions. The participation of every link in the chainTrioplast.7'