Contact Angle Goniometry Protocols for Polyolefin Lamination Adhesion Verification
Sessile contact angle goniometry isolates polar and dispersive surface energy to verify polyolefin corona treatment and prevent lamination delamination.
CEFLEX
Collaboration Objective
Collaborative initiatives across the European flexible packaging value chain drive the development of a circular economy for flexible materials. The ceflex project represents a consortium of companies working to improve the collection and sorting of plastic and paper packaging. It establishes design guidelines for flexible packaging to ensure compatibility with existing end of life infrastructure.
These guidelines prioritize the use of materials that are easily separated or recovered during industrial processing.
Circular Pathway
Structural requirements for recycled flexible materials guide the selection of polymers and coatings used in multi layer structures. While traditional flexible packaging often relies on complex laminates that combine different functional layers, ceflex encourages the transition toward structures that yield higher quality recyclates. This often involves limiting the percentage of incompatible components such as certain adhesives or barrier layers that interfere with the recovery of the main substrate.
Mechanical recycling remains the primary focus for these design strategies.
Industrial Compliance
Verification of packaging recyclability follows specific testing protocols and material thresholds defined by the consortium. The ceflex guidelines specify that a package must contain a minimum percentage of the primary material to be classified as recyclable within a specific stream. Compliance is mandatory.
Packaging engineers use these thresholds to evaluate whether a design survives the sorting process or degrades the resulting polymer quality. If a structure exceeds the permitted levels of additives or metallic layers, it falls outside the recommended design for recycling criteria. Success in this framework relies on the alignment of material producers and brand owners with the established recycling streams.