CITEO, the French eco-organisation in charge of the management and recycling of packaging waste, has just announced a new methodology to assess the recyclability of packaging, integrated in its evaluation tool TREE (for Test de Recyclabilité des Emballages - Packaging Recyclability Test). This method, designed after discussions with the main players in the sector (marketers, materials sectors, technical committees, ADEME, NGOs, CNE), is intended for CITEO’s clients to help them meet the requirements of the new environmental regulations.
“While the French Anti-Waste for a Circular Economy law, known as the AGEC law, sets the obligation for all packaging to integrate a recycling channel by 2030, and that consumers consider the recyclability of packaging to be its number one environmental asset, marketers of packaged products need sustained support to assess the recyclability of their packaging, both current and future, given the many R&D projects to develop recycling,” introduced CITEO.
The assessment method and tool are based on two hitherto unpublished criteria:
• The operational definition of a recycling stream, thanks to criteria that make it possible to assess whether a stream actually exists in practice or is being developed
• The definition of the recyclability of a household packaging by taking into account its capacity to integrate the recycling channels as defined
In this way, companies can independently assess the level of recyclability of their packaging, taking into account the capacity of this packaging to integrate the existing recycling channels thus defined and the compatibility of its components with these different recycling channels.
The method, which includes a rigorous and operational definition of recyclable packaging, was designed to take into account changes in collection, sorting and recycling systems …
