Knowledge base

PIR is an abbreviation for Post Industrial Recycled and is the raw material made from waste generated within the industry. PCR is an abbreviation for Post Consumer Recycled and is the raw material made from waste from the consumer/end user.

For the automatic filling of products, customers often choose to pack with a VFFS packaging machine. In this article we explain everything about packing using the VFFS method.

There are various ways to obtain value from plastic waste. A few decades the biggest part of our plastic waste was dumped or incinerated. Now in the Netherlands about half of the plastic packaging waste is already recycled through mechanical recycling and the EU has ambitious plans to increase this percentage in the coming years. However, there is a wide variety of plastic waste streams. Some streams, such as separately collected LDPE industrial waste and PET deposit bottles, are already almost entirely successfully mechanically recycled. For the more mixed waste streams from households, however, the percentage is much lower.

What is chemical recycling? When discussing recycling, people usually mean mechanical recycling. When plastics cannot be mechanically recycled according to the required standards from an economic and (environmental) technical point of view (e.g. multi-layer structures of polymers with different melting points), chemical recycling (recycling of raw materials) can offer solutions. Specific examples of such situations are given in the next section.

LDPE, like all types of ‘virgin’ plastic, is made from oil. It is therefore not biodegradable or compostable (read more about these topics on the page what are bioplastics?). However, provided that it meets a number of conditions, LDPE film is recyclable.

HDPE, like all types of ‘virgin’ plastic, is made from oil. It is therefore not biodegradable or compostable (read more about these topics on the page what are bioplastics?). HDPE film is, however, excellently recyclable. In order to be able to recycle at high quality to A-class materials, it must meet a number of conditions:

Both LDPE and HDPE are polyethylene types. The difference between the two types is that LDPE is made under high pressure, in contrast to HDPE....

LDPE is an abbreviation for Low Density Polyethylene. Polyethylene is made by polymerization of ethylene. (Poly means ‘a lot’; in fact, it means a lot...

HDPE stands for High Density Polyethylene and can be recognized by the crackling character of the film.

The use of bioplastics is widely discussed. Does it offer opportunities for producers and importers of packaged products within the framework of a circular economy...

Many companies experience problems with static plastic film and ask how they can make film anti-static.  In view of this recurring request for help, we would like to provide some extra information about this.

PCR is short for post-consumer recycled. PCR products are made from recycled plastic from discarded materials from households, commercial, industrial and institutional facilities.