Advanced Packaging Association wants polyamide recognised as recyclable

Iranpolymer/Baspar An international consortium in the polyamide packaging value chain has founded the Advanced Packaging Association (APA).

BASF, Ube, Envalior, Domo Chemicals, and Grupa Azoty ATT Polymers are the founding members of the Brussels-based association. The project started off in 2023 when the companies came together to highlight the key role of polyamide as a high-performance material for recyclable packaging applications.

The APA aims to ensure that flexible packaging containing polyamide is confirmed as sustainable and recyclable on a European level by 2027.

The association will share fact-based information about the use of polymamide in packaging to raise awareness of the material’s sustainability benefits. These include preventing food waste, reducing the use of raw materials, and increasing the percentage of recycled plastic.

“APA invites all actors in the value chain (including film producers, packaging converters, machinery manufacturers, recyclers, packaging initiatives, brand owners/food producers, retailers, private individuals) to join forces to confirm high performance packaging solutions as the most reasonable options to achieve food and plastic savings, or in other words, the best possible sustainability and circularity in advanced packaging. Join us in this noble and meaningful mission,” APA President Nicola Bucchioni urged. Bucchioni is the senior market intelligence manager at UBE Europe, based in Germany.

One of the association’s goals is to create a network of researchers, engineers, and experts who can analyse and develop technologies, processes and methods to demonstrate the overall sustainability benefits of polyamide in flexible packaging and films.

Journalists and policy makers are some of the APA’s key information campaign targets. Its website offers a resources section with numerous explainers, white papers and recent scientific studies,

“Moving packaging design towards the use of a single material sounds like the perfect solution for packaging recyclability. In reality, it overlooks the real functionality of packaging – to protect valuable goods in the best possible way while using as little raw material as possible. Combining optimised functionality and minimised raw material use with recyclable packaging designs can be done with advanced packaging. APA is committed to delivering these valuable data-driven messages to the relevant stakeholders in industry and government,” said APA Vice President Paul Neumann. He is the senior manager of new business development at BASF, also based in Germany.

At the beginning of this year, the German Institute for Standardisation (DIN) introduced a new standard for recycled polyamide. The standard was developed by a consortium of 19 Germany-based research and industry organisations with the goal of increasing the acceptance of polyamide recyclate on the market.

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