Food-Grade Recycled Polymers

Food-Grade Recycled Polymers TotalEnergies joins NEXTLOOPP to accelerate development of food-grade recycled polymers TotalEnergies has joined NEXTLOOPP, an initiative that brings together 47 companies across the plastic value chain with the aim of producing food-grade recycled polymers from advanced mechanical recycling. Launched by Nextek Ltd in October 2020, NEXTLOOPP is a global, multi-stakeholder and award-winning project targeting the production of high-quality recycled polypropylene from post-consumer packaging materials suitable for food-grade applications and compliant with strict food-grade standards. The project uses pioneering technology to efficiently and cost-effectively separate food-grade polypropylene (PP) from post-consumer materials and subsequently decontaminate the polymer to meet rigorous food-grade standards. NEXTLOOPP recently completed a landmark study on background contamination in post-consumer PP packaging for presentations to food safety authorities in Europe (EFSA), the United States (USFDA) and the United Kingdom (UK FSA). TotalEnergies is committed to developing a circular economy for plastics and meeting growing customer demand for high-quality recycled polymers. In this context, TotalEnergies will leverage this technological partnership to accelerate feasibility studies of advanced mechanical recycling projects targeting food contact and further expand its recently launched RE:use polymer series containing mechanically recycled raw materials. Nathalie Brunelle, Senior Vice President of TotalEnergies Polymers, said: "We are pleased to participate in and support the NEXTLOOPP project alongside other major industry players. This initiative will enable us to take another step forward in developing technologies to produce food-grade recycled materials from advanced mechanical recycling and expand our options for projects contributing to our goal of 30% circular polymer production by 2030." Professor Edward Kosior, founder and CEO of Nextek Ltd and NEXTLOOPP: "The entire NEXTLOOPP project has been strengthened by TotalEnergies adding its comprehensive technical capabilities in creating circular solutions for PP resins to the programme. They contribute to growing expertise in controlling the characteristics and formulation of both virgin and recycled PP series for numerous applications." Source