The Quest for Quality: Scaling Advanced Mechanical Recycling for Flexible Plastics
Background & Purpose
The Alliance to End Plastic Waste published a report on June 25, 2026, titled The Quest for Quality: Scaling Advanced Mechanical Recycling to Meet Recycled Content Targets for Flexibles. The report offers a comprehensive technical and economic assessment of a 50,000-tonne-per-year advanced mechanical recycling plant for flexible plastics. Its goal is to provide a practical blueprint for improving flexible packaging circularity, helping brands meet the EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), which requires 35% post-consumer recycled content in non-food packaging by 2030.
Why Flexible Plastics Matter
Flexible plastic packaging accounts for more than half of the global plastic packaging market, yet it remains one of the most difficult formats to recycle into high-value applications. The scale of the challenge makes finding viable, scalable recycling pathways both urgent and critical for the packaging industry.
Key Findings
1. High-Quality Outputs Are Achievable
Using existing advanced technologies — including sensor-based sorting, hot-washing, and double-melt filtration — post-consumer household flexible plastics can be processed into recyclates suitable for 30% or more use in demanding film applications such as shrink films, labels, and pouches.
2. Chemical and Mechanical Recycling Are Complementary
Rather than competing, advanced mechanical recycling and chemical recycling serve different purposes. Chemical recycling focuses on multi-material films targeting food-contact applications, while advanced mechanical recycling targets other fractions of the flexible plastics waste stream.
3. A New Operational Philosophy Is Needed
Recyclers must move away from traditional low-cost, mixed commodity processing and adopt a “market-pull” approach — prioritizing the production of premium recyclates that meet the specific requirements of converters and brands for demanding film applications.
4. Systemic Enablers Are Essential
Bridging the economic gap between recycled and virgin polymers requires strong policy and financial support. Key enablers include Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes to fund collection and sorting, mandated recycled content targets to stimulate demand, and access to concessionary capital to reduce project costs.
5. Capital Optimization Is Critical
Greenfield civil works and complex sorting equipment represent the largest cost burdens (31% and 25% of capital expenditure, respectively). To improve project viability, operators should pursue brownfield site upgrades and shift sorting responsibilities upstream to centralized Plastics Recovery Facilities.
Origins of the Report
The report builds on learnings from the ValueFlex project, launched in 2022 by the Alliance to End Plastic Waste alongside CEFLEX, Roland Berger, and HTP Engineering. Though the planned facility was never built due to shifting macroeconomic and policy conditions, the project produced valuable technical and operational insights that are now being made publicly available.
Looking Ahead
The Alliance to End Plastic Waste emphasizes that the technology to produce high-quality recyclates already exists — the challenge is scaling it commercially. This report serves as an open-source resource to accelerate investment, policy alignment, and value chain collaboration needed to make advanced mechanical recycling a mainstream solution.