DIC and Toyo Ink have developed an industry-wide common protocol for evaluating deinking and delamination of flexible packaging under common standards. The protocol is intended to provide a foundation for standardizing material selection and the setting of recycling conditions.
DIC and Toyo Ink announced on 7 October that they had developed an “industry-wide common protocol” standardizing the test procedures, evaluation criteria and reporting formats for deinking and delamination in the material recycling of film packaging. The initiative is intended to eliminate variations in evaluation methods in the flexible packaging sector. It is considered the first industry-wide common protocol developed for flexible packaging in Japan.
The background to the standardization is that flexible packaging consists of multiple materials, including films, printing inks and laminating adhesives, while evaluation criteria for deinking and delamination, which affect recycled quality, differ from company to company. Until now, test conditions varied by material and company, making it difficult to compare evaluation results.
The new protocol is intended to provide a common foundation that can be used for material selection and for recycling operators to set appropriate processing conditions by standardizing test procedures, evaluation criteria and reporting formats for deinking and delamination. Going forward, packaging material manufacturers and product designers may be encouraged to make choices that take ease of recycling into account.