NEXTLOOPP and L’Oréal have partnered as part of its project to create food-grade recycled polypropylene (rPP) from post-consumer packaging waste.
Launched in October 2020 by Nextek Ltd, NEXTLOOPP recently shared the results of its tracer-based sorting trials and began the production trials of food-grade compliant rPP. It claims to be making more than 60 different products from NEXTLOOPP’s four grades of PPristine food compliant and INRT rPP grade resins. According to the company, the INRT-grade recycled polypropylene has been developed specifically for packaging that requires no odour and no migration challenges.
NEXTLOOPP claims that “through using a combination of technologies developed by Nextek Ltd to separate food-grade PP from the rest, and then decontaminate the polymer to ensure compliance with food-grade standards in the UK, EU and the USA, it can identify and sort any number of pack variants from shower gel bottles to yoghurt pots in any plastic type”.
Delphine Trillat, materials science domain leader at L’Oréal, says: “We have been working for many years to develop packaging made from high quality post-consumer recycled polymers. Today, we are pleased to join the NEXTLOOPP Project Team in order to join efforts and boost the circular pathway for food-grade rPP packaging, with such a promising technology for the years to come.”
Professor Edward Kosior, founder and CEO of Nextek Ltd and NEXTLOOPP says: “Thanks to L’Oréal’s long-term commitment to sustainable packaging, it is the ideal participant to trial our high purity recycled polypropylene resins. We look forward to closing the PP loop with them.”
Nextek’s NEXTLOOPP project was the overall winner of Packaging Europe’s Sustainability Awards 2021, and also received the ‘Driving the Circular Economy’ award. In March 2022, L’Oréal partnered with Texen on a cap for Biotherm’s skincare collection, made from 100% recycled polypropylene (PP) and able to be adapted for different container shapes.
