Ever wonder what "getting to food grade" means in the world of recycling? 💡 "Food grade" refers to materials and processes that meet strict safety and quality standards for direct contact with food. It’s a commitment to ensuring that every step of the production process, from packaging to machinery, adheres to regulations designed to protect consumer health. Food-grade materials are: 🚫 Non-toxic 👃 Odorless 🍽️ Free from imparting any flavor or odor to the food they touch. Sorting food grade plastics from non-food grade has always been a challenge for the recycling industry. Because food and non-food packaging often use the same materials and look almost identical, traditional sorting systems struggle to tell them apart. Add to that strict hygiene standards and regulations, and the process becomes even more complex. That’s where TOMRA Recycling's GAINnext™ technology comes in. By leveraging advanced deep learning, GAINnext™ makes it possible to accurately and efficiently separate food grade plastics at scale. Curious to learn more? https://lnkd.in/eVSSXJZX #CircularEconomy #Recycling #RecyclingInnovation #PlasticRecycling #TOMRA
We should be able to explore the possibility of a dedicated collection system for food grade packaging, x% of total available. Basically, categorisation based on source, amenability to such a system, quality of waste (ease of recycling to food grade), etc. So, x% from n sources, could be tracked by a dedicated technology based system and collected as higher quality waste. Mapping the sources would be a one time effort. The rest may be down cycled, non contact packaging for food items, or used in some lower grade food related applications - milk and dry grains would have different needs, sent for non-food uses or ignored. Sources may also need to be developed, entire supply chain may need to be relooked at, so could be the case for packaging design (designed for recycling). As an example, milk pouches could go back to a milk vendor easily, who can send it back upstream.
Experienced technical, equipment, process, packaging, sales, after sales/service specialist. Demonstrated food, general, beverage history in Africa. General management, lean production, continuous improvement experience.
4wOr, one can remove the toxins, aromatics, 'flavourants' from the materials - waste or virgin - to re-compound the material to better than previous?