“CEFLEX is the most significant and solution-oriented industrial initiative for flexible packaging,” explained Jörg-Peter Langhammer, Head of Global PSR + Sustainability at Siegwerk. “It offers a perfect platform to network and exchange with experts from other areas and to cooperatively shape the future by redesign and innovation, along with the parallel development of a strong infrastructure to collect, sort and recycle flexible packaging. I am firmly convinced that together we can make a real difference.”

Siegwerk joined CEFLEX in 2017 as the first ink provider. Prior to that, the company was already contributing to preliminary projects involving the future of flexible packaging managed by the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.

The CEFLEX Commitment and New Plastics Economy

Flexible packaging represents an application area that provides customized product protection at minimum total cost and with the lowest environmental impact; in other words, it is very resource efficient. CEFLEX and its stakeholders are fully committed to the goal of 100% collection and recycling of all plastic packaging. Working together, the initiative’s underlying goal is to prepare a comprehensive sustainability and circular economy roadmap for flexible packaging by 2020. Next to design guidelines for flexible packaging in a circular economy, this roadmap will include activity plans for increased resource efficiency as well as measures for the optimized collection of flexible packaging waste and recovery of recyclables. By 2025, CEFLEX wants to establish a collection, sorting and reprocessing infrastructure based on the most cost-effective and environmentally friendly processes, concretely developed for post-consumer flexible packaging across Europe. Alongside CEFLEX, Siegwerk fully supports the Global Commitment and Common Vision issued by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation on a New Plastics Economy envisaging a future where plastic, including flexible plastic packaging, is never becoming waste and is in line with a circular economy.

Siegwerk’s Contribution

Siegwerk’s contribution applies to printing inks and varnishes and their essential role in the future of flexible packaging. Today, the company’s experts are participating in three of the seven overall work streams that were established to achieve CEFLEX’s defined goals. These include design guidelines for a circular economy, sustainable end markets, and facilitating technologies

Through its work, Siegwerk contributes to the design guidelines for flexible packaging in a circular economy and the influence of inks and printed layers on the automatic sortability of flexible packaging waste and on recyclates derived from mechanical recycling including extrusion. Together with all other stakeholders, Siegwerk has taken the discussion further and is investigating the removal from inks and printed layers during the recycling process (deinking) to improve the quality of the recyclates. Ultimately, Siegwerk is engaged in investigations on ink influence within advanced recycling technologies like chemical recycling where polymers are extracted from pre-sorted post-consumer waste streams. Apart from mechanical recycling, many of these advanced recycling technologies haven’t been used on a large scale yet and thus might be promising options for the future.

The company’s strong commitment within the CEFLEX network demonstrates Siegwerk’s leading role in terms of sustainability and product safety.

Sustainability means progress for Siegwerk. The company has a wealth of experience with inks for paper and board applications and the corresponding need for ultimate deinkability of inks to support paper recycling. The company offers ink series that are compostable according to DIN EN 13432. Siegwerk also makes every effort to further develop bio-based inks, like the newly developed water-based ink range UniBio, with an increased share of raw materials based on renewable resources. With its ink series Sicura Litho NutriEco, Siegwerk also markets the world’s first low-migration UV ink range for cosmetics and food applications that has been awarded Gold status of the Cradle to Cradle^® Material Health Certification by the Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency (EPEA). This means that these inks are safe for recycling processes and therefore fit well into the circular economy approach. These are just a few examples of Siegwerk’s extensive activities to further shape the future of packaging through innovative and sustainable ink solutions.