interpack 2023, the world's largest trade fair for the packaging and related process industries, took place in Düsseldorf from May 4 to 10. In line with the trending topics of recycling management and resource conservation, LEONHARD KURZ presented RECOSYS® 2.0, an absolute trade show highlight, to the public. RECOSYS® 2.0 is the development of the return and recycling system for PET transfer carriers, which KURZ implemented as the world's first company from the plastics industry. The thin-film specialist is thus bringing the packaging industry closer to a circular economy.
The first major step in this direction was introducing RECOSYS® and the postindustrial compound RECOPOUND® . The recycled injection molding granules already reduce up to 40 percent CO2 compared to new material. They are also suitable for manufacturing stable and durable plastic products, among other things, and can also be decorated to a high standard. Thanks to process improvement, RECOSYS® 2.0 not only allows even more KURZ products to be recycled, but also increases the range of possible uses for the recycled material.
From PET to rPET
With RECOSYS® 2.0, production scraps can now be turned into recycled PET (“rPET”) for the first time. rPET is used, among other things, for the production of plastic bottles or plastic packaging and also offers a wide range of uses beyond this. “We are currently the only manufacturer in the industry that converts the PET of our ultra-thin transfer decoration into valuable raw material. Our long-term goal is to recycle all of our products and produce new substrate material from them. This way, we will achieve a true circular economy in the future, where no more surplus material has to end up in the trash,” says Rolf Schmidtke, RECOSYS® 2.0 project manager at LEONHARD KURZ.
All customers participating in RECOSYS® receive a recycling certificate confirmed by the independent environmental auditing organization Intechnica Cert GmbH. This certificate ensures traceability of the process and transparency for end customers and consumers. It also provides information on the annual CO2 savings. With the help of RECOSYS® 2.0, Scope 3 emissions, i.e., greenhouse gas emissions along a company’s entire value chain, can also be reduced by up to 90 percent. KURZ achieves this by avoiding the incineration of carrier materials, reducing the product carbon footprint (PCF), and generally conserving resources since no primary raw materials need to be used to obtain PET. With RECOSYS® 2.0, KURZ customers secure a verifiably optimized sustainability balance and a clear competitive advantage while greatly benefiting our environment