Recycling plastics in the food sector: challenges and solutions

Plastic recycling in the food sector has become an important issue in the sustainability debate. As environmental awareness grows and regulations tighten, the food industry is looking to reduce its ecological footprint. Here, plastic management plays a key role. This sector faces a number of specific challenges that must be overcome in order to meet societal and regulatory expectations. In today’s blog, we discuss the main challenges facing plastic recycling in the food industry, as well as some of the solutions that are already in place to improve the situation.

The challenges of plastic recycling in the food sector

Pollution and food safety

One of the main obstacles to recycling plastics in the food sector is the strict regulations related to food safety.

Plastic packaging that has been in contact with food must meet high standards of purity to avoid contamination. This means that even if plastic can be recycled, it is not always possible to reuse it to make new food packaging. Especially if the recycled material does not guarantee the necessary safety or quality. Recycled plastics that contain food residues or that have absorbed chemicals during their life cycle can become a source of contamination. The recycling process must therefore be extremely rigorous. This increases the costs and complexity of the process.

Complexity of plastic materials

The food industry uses a wide variety of plastic types, from PET (polyethylene terephthalate) for bottles and rigid containers, to low-density polyethylene (LDPE) for bags and packaging.

Each type of plastic requires a specific recycling process, which complicates waste management and sorting. In addition, many food products come in composite packaging, which combines several types of plastics or even other materials such as paper or aluminium. These multi-layer materials are particularly difficult to recycle, as separating them efficiently is expensive and technologically complex.

Low effective recycling rate

Although plastic recycling in general has increased in recent years, the effective recycling rate for plastics in the food sector remains low. This is because many consumers do not separate properly.

Limited infrastructure

Although technologies exist to recycle plastics, the infrastructure available to carry out this process on a global scale remains limited.

Many recycling plants are not equipped to process food-grade plastics, which reduces recycling rates in the sector.

Solutions for recycling plastics in the food sector

New technological and strategic solutions are emerging to address this problem more effectively:

Chemical recycling

Chemical recycling is one of the most promising solutions. Unlike mechanical recycling, which can only reprocess relatively high-quality plastics, chemical recycling breaks down plastics into their basic chemical components, allowing them to be reconverted into virgin materials.

Biodegradable and compostable plastics

Biodegradable and compostable plastics are gaining ground in the food sector.

Although they are not a direct solution to recycling, they can alleviate the burden of plastic waste, if properly managed in industrial composting infrastructures.

Ecodesign for recyclability

Companies are adopting eco-design to create plastic packaging that is easier to recycle. This includes reducing composite materials that are difficult to separate and eliminating inks and adhesives that contaminate the recycling stream. Eliminating plastic in the food sector is practically impossible today. That is why we must look for alternatives that facilitate its recycling or reuse.