In the "Circular Competence" interview series, the VDMA Printing and Paper Technology Association asks its member companies about their plans, solutions, and challenges on the road to a circular economy. What can the industry do to minimize the ecological footprint of packaging and other printed products?

Frankfurt - Dr. Peter Steinbeck, CEO of the Windmöller & Hölscher (W&H) Group, headquartered in Lengerich, Germany, discusses the company's strategies and concrete approaches for entering the circular economy.

Do you use recycling and waste avoidance concepts in your own production?
This has been an important issue for us for over 30 years. At the beginning of the 1990s - on the occasion of the then new Packaging Ordinance - we systematically analysed how we could avoid waste in our production and sort residual materials by type. Since then, we have constantly optimised this and today do everything possible in this area. Because sorted and classified according to type, production waste becomes recyclable material. This also applies to our pilot plant, where we test new film materials and suitable processing methods, among other things. We return 100 percent of the materials from the pilot plant to the material suppliers for recycling - in some cases in exchange for new material. Particularly in the case of plastics, we advocate orderly recycling, i.e., returning them to the cycle via suitable applications instead of adding them directly to new materials on site.

What Circular Economy solutions do you offer your customers?
We have been working intensively with our partners and customers for years to reduce the environmental footprint of the products they produce on our equipment. One approach is the use of monomaterials. In the case of food packaging, this requires that barrier properties remain guaranteed in terms of shelf life if they are made of fully recyclable ALL-PE or FULL-PP. We are also pushing ahead with new solutions. For example, thin layers of water-soluble barrier polymers that can be processed with our modern blown film lines. Later, in a water bath, these can be separated by type because one fraction sinks and the other floats to the top. It is important that such fully recyclable materials can be processed with our machines and lines in the usual quality. In the case of monomaterials, we have succeeded in doing this through consistent further development of our MDO (Machine Direction Orientation) technology. In addition to the mono-material approach, we are also pushing ahead with the production and processing of films with a very high recycled material content. As part of CEFLEX, we are working to ensure that 100 percent of all flexible packaging in Europe is collected, and 80 percent recycled as regranulate by 2025. The task now is to establish procedures and processes for this. On a technical level, many things are feasible, including the processing of biomaterials. But there is a lack of classified recycling material in sufficient quantities. For this purpose, the legal framework conditions must be readjusted in order to be able to generate single-variety, precisely classified material flows for comprehensive recycling.

How does the topic affect your research and development and cooperation with your customers and material suppliers?
W&H covers the part of the process chain from extrusion to further processing to printing of the flexible films, fabrics, and papers in which just about everything from food to medical products to cement is packaged. The current focus is on networking the processes and optimizing them as a whole. Our IoT system RUBY is the basis for monitoring, automating, and controlling packaging production based on data. The consolidation and evaluation of data is central to being able to establish material cycles in the circular economy. As machine manufacturers, we are often in a pioneering role because we have the necessary understanding of the process and must think many years ahead when it comes to machine solutions. However, in order to exploit the full potential, solutions are needed worldwide to collect and sort waste and to recycle it.

Is the demand for your Circular Competence increasing worldwide - or is this a regionally limited phenomenon?
Internationally active corporations are taking a pioneering role. However, environmental awareness has been increasing worldwide in recent years. In the plastics industry, but also in politics, discussions are taking place differently today than they did just a few years ago. But there are still big differences in the implementation. While China is setting very clear guidelines for the industry, the rethinking in local markets in Asia, Africa and South America is often not yet taking hold. Unfortunately, energy- and resource-efficient production processes are still the exception there. Functioning waste disposal systems are also lacking in many places. Political solutions and incentives for orderly disposal are needed so that recyclable materials no longer end up in the environment. Packaging is particularly important in these markets so that hygiene can be maintained, and food does not spoil on its way to consumers. The problem is not the plastic, but the lack of disposal systems.

Are the framework conditions for entering the Circular Economy right?
There is a lack of clarity as to how packaging should look, and which materials are processed and classified in it. There must be clear guidelines on this for manufacturers and importers in the European market. This would help because manufacturers from other parts of the world would no longer be able to use cheap circumvention solutions when exporting to Europe, but would have to invest in modern, ecologically state-of-the-art machinery and processes. Recycled materials are also often more expensive, which makes their use more difficult. The EU can make a difference by setting clear guidelines - and can exert leverage worldwide. Ultimately, strict framework conditions are the driver for packaging manufacturers to invest in modern technology with which mono and recycled materials can be processed in the usual quality. The transition to the Circular Economy is a good time to modernize process chains, better network machines and manufacturers, and establish a new material base. In the future, we will need to know the exact background of each material. This is the only way to prevent contaminated materials from ending up in food packaging via recycling processes. A functioning circular economy - which we all want - needs clear rules.