Learnings from Norway
Norway’s well-established deposit return system offers a unique early insight into these developments. With their long experience in high-loop PET recycling and rapid turnaround times, the Norwegian system shows a clear trend: higher rPET content leads to more contamination and more complex material behaviour. This is now becoming visible across Europe as recycling volumes rise.
New technical challenges emerging in high rPET systems
Experience from the Norwegian recycling loops shows that increased recycled content introduces common aspects like greyness, but also other, more serious technical issues, including:
- Changes in crystalline morphology leading to reduced cold crystallization rate during heating from the solid state - creating sticky surfaces
- Higher CO₂ absorption and reduced desorption, resulting in foamed flakes
- Reduced recycling process efficiency and product quality (lower intrinsic viscosity)
- Greater variability in rPET conversion behaviour resulting in process optimization challenges
- Increased variability in product performance, including optical, mechanical, and barrier
These effects directly influence processing stability, product quality, and the ability to meet food contact and performance requirements.
