In the framework of the mechanical recycling of post-consumer plastic waste, food contact is a rather ambitious goal, both from a technical and regulatory point of view. In particular, there are no technologies available today that allow the use of recycled polystyrene (r-PS) in food direct contact applications.
Versalis has developed a decontamination technology for recycled polymers (r-Polymers) that enables the production of recycled polystyrene suitable for direct contact with food.
Thanks to a collaboration agreement with Forever Plast, an Italian company and European leader in the recycling of post-consumer plastics, the new decontamination technology, in compliance with the EU/1616/2022 Recycling Regulation, will be applied at an industrial scale in 2024 and will allow the production of food packaging using up to 100% r-PS.