A pioneering national trial has launched in Belgium to assess how digital watermarks on flexible plastic food packaging can improve sorting and recycling rates. Backed by major global food brands, the initiative represents the first time this technology is being tested on household-collected flexible plastics at a national scale. The project aims to prove that digital codes, invisible to the human eye but detectable by high-speed cameras on sorting lines, can accurately categorise complex flexible structures.
Sorting flexible packaging remains one of the most significant hurdles in the transition to a circular plastics economy. Currently, optical sorting systems struggle to differentiate between food-grade and non-food-grade flexibles, or to identify multi-layer materials that contaminate mono-polymer recycling streams. By embedding digital watermarks into the packaging design, sorting facilities can automatically segregate high-quality food-contact polymers, potentially unlocking new high-value end markets for recycled flexible plastics.
For UK waste companies and Turkish recyclers, this trial offers a glimpse into the future of international scrap specifications and compliance. As the EU and UK tighten regulations on packaging recyclability and recycled content mandates, the ability to verify the origin and composition of flexible streams will become critical. Turkish recyclers, who face strict import controls on mixed or contaminated polymer waste, stand to benefit significantly if digital watermarking becomes standardised. It would allow for cleaner, pre-sorted mono-streams of LDPE and PP to be traded with higher confidence, reducing the risk of customs rejections and lowering processing costs.
A key practical takeaway for packaging converters and recyclers is the need to prepare for digital sorting integration. While widespread commercial adoption may take years, converters should begin evaluating how watermark technologies affect packaging design, whilst recyclers must monitor how sorting infrastructure upgrades will impact the purity—and market value—of incoming baled materials.
