RecyClass has completed more than 500 recyclability assessments of plastic packaging technologies and components used in the European market. The milestone comes as manufacturers and brands adjust designs to the European Union's Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, which entered into force in February 2025 and will generally apply from August 12, 2026.
The Brussels-based nonprofit evaluates materials and solutions against science-based protocols, with independent laboratories performing the tests. The aim is not to certify a design intention but to observe how adhesives, inks, labels, closures and multilayer structures behave in actual recycling streams and whether they contaminate the recovered polymer.
Assessments already cover laminating adhesives for flexible packaging, plastic trigger-sprayer components that replace metal springs, and labels for PET and HDPE bottles. Each detail matters: a bottle made from a widely recycled polymer can lose quality or yield if attached elements do not separate during washing, sorting and reprocessing.
A recent case is Avery Dennison's AD CleanFlake RFID label for PET bottles. RecyClass granted it Technology Approval, making it the first solution of its kind recognized in both Europe and by North America's Association of Plastic Recyclers. Its adhesive, electronic inlay and label were designed to separate cleanly during mechanical recycling.
The innovation addresses a growing problem. RFID labels enable identification, tracking and inventory management, but conventional versions contain metals, adhesives and other materials that can interfere with sorting or degrade recycled PET. Making digital traceability compatible with end-of-life treatment prevents a logistics function from becoming a new technical barrier.
The PPWR sets life-cycle requirements for packaging and requires packaging placed on the market to be recyclable; harmonized design-for-recycling criteria and performance grades will develop toward 2030, while recyclability at scale gains weight from 2035. A voluntary approval can therefore prepare a product, but it does not replace each company's legal documentation or compliance duties.
RecyClass and APR have worked for three years to bring European and North American protocols closer together. The next challenge is for harmonization to produce designs accepted by different plants without lowering standards, and for 500 assessments to translate into verifiable market change: fewer incompatible components, higher material recovery and packaging that is not merely recyclable in theory but actually sorted and recycled at scale.
