Sustainability roundup: packaging collaboration driving reuse and recycling

The PaperFlex Consortium launched to accelerate paper-based flexible packaging innovation

Press release by Ellen MacArthur Foundation

Avantium and Klöckner Pentaplast in partnership for plant-based packaging

Press release by Food & Drink Technology 

Avantium has signed a capacity reservation agreement with global packaging leader Klöckner Pentaplast (kp), a move set to provide food and drink brands with a clear pathway to next-generation, sustainable thermoformed packaging.

AI helps turn old milk bottles into new ones

Press release by BBC

Artificial intelligence is being used to help turn old milk bottles into new ones and they can be back in your fridge “within two weeks”.

Recycling site Biffa Polymers in Redcar uses the technology to analyse materials moving along conveyor belts at a speed and scale that “would be difficult for people to match”.

Scaling reuse: what have we learned from city-scale pilots?

Article by Packaging Europe

With market penetration of reuse still relatively low, at ~20%, what does it take to move reuse from an individual-business initiative to a functioning city-scale system, and what can cities learn from the successes and failures of recent pilots?

Changing mix of household packaging and printed paper requires U.S. recycling system to evolve

Article by The Recycling Partnership

Last 16 September, The Recycling Partnership released the second instalment of its 2026 State of Recycling Report, the nation’s most comprehensive assessment of the U.S. residential recycling system. It examines the packaging and printed paper that U.S. households discard into both trash and recycling, revealing a material mix that is becoming lighter, more varied, and more operationally complex to manage.