Janoschka magazine Linked_V6_2021

74 n o t e s
issue #6 © l i n k e d
75
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s u s t a i n a b i l i t y : h o l y g r a i l 2 . 0
Invisible but highly effective
Walk the Talk:
Green Deal
sustainability
– transparency in plastic recycling
Linked2Brands is supporting the HolyGrail 2.0 project as an enhancing partner
Environmental and climate protection are the most pressing global challenges of our age.
Saving resources is the order of the day. The European Commission has responded to
these issues with its Green Deal, setting standards for sustainable growth and paving the
way for a circular economy with a plan of action.
Digital watermarks are codes the size of postage stamps
(imperceptible to the human eye) that are placed on the
surface of consumer goods packaging. They can hold a
large amount of information and attributes, such as manufacturer,
type of plastics used, composition of multilayered
items, use for food or non-food etc. The watermark
information can be used along the whole value
creation chain – from the manufacture to the reuse of the
packaging. It makes the entire lifecycle of packaging transparent.
When packaging with a digital watermark arrives
at a waste-sorting plant, a high-resolution camera on the
sorting line can decode the information. The packaging is
then sorted into the correct stream based on the transferred
attributes.
Being a strategic partner for enhancement services in
the area of digital barcode solutions, Linked2Brands can
utilise its expertise and experience in graphic packaging
production to the full. The production agency is applying
its know-how to actively support the (semi)-industrial
HolyGrail 2.0 trials in 2021-2022.
“We are contributing our collective specialist knowledge
of data preparation as well as our experience along the
whole packaging value creation chain to the HolyGrail 2.0
project. Responsibility for sustainability and resources has
always been decisive in our work. Our role as an enhancing
partner reflects this,” says Stefan Hilss, Managing
Director Linked2Brands. “Establishing closed cycles is a
very complex task that we can only solve if all stakeholders
actively work together.“
HolyGrail 2.0 with its system of digital watermarks for
sorting has created new options. The technology previously
available fell short of the mark. To test the
watermark technology’s ability to achieve accurate sorting,
an industrial pilot facility is required as are scenarios to
evaluate the system from an economic point of view.
HolyGrail 2.0 brings together innovation, sustainability and
digital technology to achieve the Green Deal objective of
a clean, circular and carbon-neutral economy. More than
130 companies and organisations from the packaging industry
encompassing the whole value creation chain have
signed up to the initiative.
Reusable or recyclable
All plastic packaging in the EU should be reusable or
recyclable at low expense by 2030. The plan is for this
new, sustainable plastic economy to work exclusively
as a circular system. With the Digital Watermarks Initiative
"HolyGrail 2.0", the European Brands Association
AIM (Association des Industries de Marque) drives a
project with the aim of making packaging more easily
sortable. Aware of their responsibility regarding
sustainable packaging, Linked2Brands has joined the
quest for the Holy Grail and is contributing its expertise
and know-how in the role of an enhancing partner.
The HolyGrail 2.0 initiative is making use of the broad
expertise of its various partners to look into digital
watermarks as a possible solution. They want to find
out whether this innovation could contribute to greater
sorting efficiency and hence higher quality recycling
for packaging in the EU. This technology should then
set the circular economy in motion.
After all, an efficient circular economy for packaging
essentially relies on optimum sorting of consumer
waste: the more homogeneous the packaging, the
easier it is to recycle. Therefore, the crucial thing is
to be able to identify the packaging material precisely,
and digital watermarks are currently considered to be
the most promising technology for this.
European Green Deal:
The European Commission launched its “Green Deal” – an extensive programme
for better climate and environmental protection in the EU –
in December 2019. The declared aim is to make the EU the world’s first
carbon-neutral bloc by 2050. This will be achieved by reducing harmful
emissions significantly and further promoting the circular economy in Europe.
At the same time, economic growth is to be decoupled from resource use.
www.aim.be/priorities/digital-watermarks