More than 80 major European brands, including P&G, PepsiCo and Mondi will collaborate to explore the feasibility of using “digital watermarks” to improve the sorting of recyclable packaging across the European Union (EU), as part of the HolyGrail 2.0 project spearheaded by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. In 2016, P&G’s sustainable packaging expert Gian deBelder helped develop and spearhead the HolyGrail collaboration in Europe, as part of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy. The HolyGrail project, which aims to place digital watermarks on packaging, so they can be identified by a range of key stakeholders, won edie’s Circular Economy Innovation of the Year Award for 2020. In developing the project, more than 30 companies across the plastics packaging value chain, including manufacturers, waste managers and academics, worked together for more than a year to prove the sorting concept.
It aims to use “digital watermarks” the size of postage stamps on consumer goods package that can be detected and decoded by a standard high-resolution camera on the sorting lines when in a waste sorting facility. Once identified, the facility is able to sort packaging into different streams. It is hoped this will deliver more accurate sorting streams, which in turn would create a larger market for higher-quality recyclates.
The businesses involved in the project will explore the viability of a mass-market rollout of digital watermarks, which can also detail information on the manufacturer and brands associated with the packaging. The watermarks could also be used to drive consumer engagement and deliver more transparency on supply chain sustainability and retail operations. Commenting on the business recruitment to the project, PepsiCo Europe’s chief executive Silviu Popovici said: “Effective sorting of waste is a barrier to wider recycling of packaging materials in Europe. This industry-wide challenge can only be resolved by working together for a system-wide solution. “Developing digital watermarks for packaging is a prime example of how collective action and technology can advance a circular economy. This is another step in PepsiCo’s efforts to build a world where plastic need never become waste.”
Source: Edie
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