Together with European Brands Association, AIM, among others, we contributed with our knowledge and experiences of the value chain within the Danish return system to see what potentials of the digital watermark technology have to revolutionise the way of sorting packaging waste.

Challenge

Among the contributions we produced “To the End of Life”. The film shows the perspectives of the Holy Grail 2.0 that may provide a future solution of recycling packaging waste – especially if we are able to invest and work together across industries and borders.

Solution

The partnership offers the power of a common solution, that might influence how we can work together across value chains and for the benefit of the consumers and companies within Europe.

Digital watermarks are the size of stamps and are spread across the surface of the packaging in a dense pattern. The watermark code can contain a wide range of information about the packaging’s different characteristics, such as material, whether the packaging is food contact approved, and whether it can be recycled. The watermark is printed or embossed on the packaging and is invisible to the naked eye but can be easily identified by the camera on a regular smartphone or by a scanner in a sorting plant. This results in a much more detailed automatic sorting of the packaging in the waste stream than has so far been possible

Contributors

More than 130 companies and organizations throughout the packaging value chain across the EU have joined forces on the project, which is led by European Brand Association, AIM with financial support from Alliance to End Plastic Waste, (AEPW).

Further information