Recycling is a crucial component of modern waste management and an effective environmental protection strategy. It refers to the process of recovering raw materials from waste. By recycling materials such as glass, metal, plastic, or paper, and reusing waste within a circular economy, we reduce the demand for raw materials that often require significant energy to extract and process. A functional recycling system saves valuable resources, reduces waste, and decreases environmental impact.
The German Circular Economy Act (KrWG), in effect since 2012, obligates manufacturers to design products that minimize waste during production and usage, ensuring environmentally friendly disposal after use. The Packaging Act (VerpackG), effective since 2019, further incentivizes the use of renewable resources to conserve finite resources. To reduce packaging waste, there is a growing shift toward sustainable packaging solutions. Additionally, the recently adopted EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) is driving change in the packaging industry.
Is Reusable More Sustainable Than Single-Use?
As the name suggests, reusable packaging and reusable tableware can be used multiple times. According to the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety, and Energy Technology, multiple uses, repair potential, and organized waste management should be pursued for all types of (bio) plastic products. Therefore, reusable food containers are fundamentally a sustainable solution—at least when they circulate, are cleaned in dishwashers using green electricity, and are recycled rather than disposed of and incinerated at the end of their life.
How well this works depends on various factors. As with other products, the material composition is an important criterion for the recyclability of reusable tableware. Depending on the material, reusable products can qualify for different forms of recycling, making them fundamentally circular. Ideally, a reusable plate would be processed into a new reusable plate during the recycling process. However, some challenges limit the recycling of reusable items. A close look at our recycling system reveals why a former food container cannot currently (yet) be turned into a new food container.
How Does Recycling Work?
Waste management companies collect the waste, which is then sorted in recycling facilities. In Germany, we typically perform a pre-sorting by separating our waste into organic waste, yellow bags or yellow bins, residual waste, electronic waste, and hazardous waste. What cannot be manually or machine-sorted in recycling facilities is removed and incinerated. Then, different recycling options are considered:
- Energy Recovery Incineration
- Chemical Recycling
- Material Recycling / Mechanical Recycling
- Biobased Recycling
Energy Recovery Incineration
Also known as thermal recovery or waste-to-energy, it refers to the process of incinerating waste to generate energy. Although this method does not fully align with the goals of a circular economy, it is still widely used. There are reasons for this: energy recovery incineration is better than landfilling and at least offers the possibility of utilizing the waste. At the same time, it generates heat or electricity, which helps reduce the use of fossil fuels.
Chemical Recycling
This recycling process does not require plastics to be sorted by type. Given that sorting modern plastic packaging by type is often impossible due to their unique compositions, this is a significant advantage of this recycling method. It is also known as raw material recovery and involves breaking down the materials into low-molecular components. Unfortunately, the energy required for this is currently still high, which is why it is considered uneconomical and is used relatively little in Germany.
Material Recycling
Also known as mechanical recycling, this process involves sorting waste by type to be processed as recyclates for new applications. Recyclates are raw materials for new products that are produced in the recycling process through shredding, melting, and subsequent conversion into secondary raw materials.
Biobased Recycling
Bioplastics can be classified into different categories. They can be biobased, biodegradable, or even both.
Biobased: The products are (partially) made from biomass, such as corn, cellulose, or sugarcane.
Biodegradable: Microorganisms can convert the material into natural substances in a biochemical process, such as water, carbon dioxide, or microbial biomass. The environmental conditions and molecular structure of the plastic determine the degradation speed.
What Does Food-Grade Recycling Mean?
Why can’t a reusable bowl be turned into a new reusable bowl, even though its constituent materials have excellent recycling potential? This has to do with existing regulations for the food industry: The EU regulation (No. 2022/1616) on recycled plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact with food is designed to ensure product safety and ultimately protect our health. All material components and the recycling process must meet these requirements to minimize the risk of potential contamination by foreign substances. So far, there are not enough solutions to reuse recyclates in the food industry without significant time and technical effort. Currently, only two practical technologies for food-grade recycling are legally approved in Germany:
- Recycling PET bottles into new PET bottles
- Recycling within closed, monitored product cycles.
The production cycle is strictly monitored to ensure no unwanted contamination occurs. Regulations mandate that food-grade reusable products can only circulate within a single company or production network, such as storage containers for food. Since they cannot leave the company, this technology is unsuitable for reusable packaging. After all, end consumers should be able to take the reusable product home, which would interrupt constant monitoring.
Currently, reusable tableware cannot yet be transformed into new reusable tableware. However, it can end up outside the food industry: In its second life cycle, the reusable bowl may reappear as another product, such as a recycled pen. To turn zero waste solutions and food-grade recycling from a vision of the future into reality, we need to think realistically about the possibilities and limitations of recycling. Only then can current challenges be addressed so that a circular economy, in which no
