In June 2026, Nestle and the Danish Technological Institute (DTI) launched the InFact project. The project involves facilitating chemical recycling of household plastic waste into new flexible plastic packaging. The new packaging made from waste will be food-safe packaging. To get more insights about the project, the partners are also working alongside fourteen other companies and organizations.
“What makes InFact unique is its systemic approach. Led by DTI, we have united the entire value chain — from municipalities like Copenhagen, Denmark, and sorting experts like Interzero, to chemical industry leaders and global consumer brands such as Nestlé, Cloetta, and Hilton,” said Per Sigaard Christensen, business manager at DTI.
The Nestle and Danish partnership is a clear response to the EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), and it also includes BKI Foods, TotalEnergies, Fraunhofer IVV, Arcus Greencycling Technologies, Re: Lab, Topsoe, Coveris, Dapofa, the University of Southern Denmark, and Vana.
“Flexible food packaging is highly advanced, as it must meet strict food safety and quality requirements. This also makes it more complex to recycle compared to more rigid materials,” said Louise Burn, Nordic sustainability manager at Nestlé.
“As a result, the availability of high-quality, food-grade recycled plastic for flexible packaging remains limited today. Scaling this requires technological innovation and the development of new collection and sorting systems that can handle flexible materials more effectively.”
According to DTI, the InFact Project’s main aim is to tackle issues such as landfilling and cross-industry dipping, leading to the downcycling of packaging materials.
“Sorting mixed household waste to the high purity and low moisture levels required by recyclers is operationally very challenging. The different companies in the value chain do not have an understanding of the consequences of the packaging design on the final recyclability,” Christensen continues.
“When you add the technical issues of contaminants like chlorine or inks, and a lengthy regulatory approval process of three to four years for food-contact recycled plastics, we face a series of bottlenecks that InFact is designed to solve.”
The partners of the InFact project also emphasize the fact that they bring together the key players across the value chain- from waste management and recyclers to packaging producers and food companies.
“This type of collaboration is essential to unlock new solutions. By testing and scaling new technologies and systems together, the project can help build the infrastructure needed to increase recycling of flexible plastics and make more food-grade recycled material available.”
Christensen adds: “InFact bridges the gap between political regulation and industrial reality by providing cohesive, circular infrastructure at scale. We are focusing on a dynamic relationship where packaging design and recycling economics work hand-in-hand.”
Burn asserts that meeting the upcoming PPWR requirements will require systemic change “no single company can achieve this alone.”
“Collaborative initiatives like InFact are critical because they enable coordinated action across the value chain. They allow stakeholders to align on standards, accelerate innovation, and scale solutions faster than would be possible individually. This is particularly important for complex materials like flexible packaging.”
Christensen argues: “By testing existing packaging and brand-new designs, we are showing that better design directly improves recyclability. This dramatically increases recycling yields and makes the entire process economically viable.”
The main aim of the InFact project also involves meeting the PPWR recyclability and recycled-content requirements. Currently, 14% of the 9 million tons of flexible plastic packaging placed on the EU market annually is recycled, according to Christensen. He argues that improving yields through chemical recycling can motivate the market to establish local solutions and unlock a stable supply of “high-quality recycled materials.”
“Specifically, we are working on integrating recycled content from dissolution which restores plastic to a near-virgin state directly into new packaging films.”
The InFact project will also work to develop the supply chain models and roadmaps to align with FPR regulations and eco-modulation of fees, along with drafting functional tender criteria. The main aim of the partnership also highlights public tenders to be able to accommodate chemical recycling. The EPR rules today are encouraging the packaging industries towards value chain collaboration to tackle the eco-modulation of fees and design for recyclability.
“This will help companies meet the strict PPWR recycled-content requirements for flexible packaging,” Christensen adds.
The project partners also claim that by the end of the InFact project, success would mean having proven that the entire end-to-end value chain is technically and economically viable for them.
“We want to validate sorting trials that consistently deliver flexible plastic fractions for the targeted recycling technologies. We also aim to have successfully manufactured films at scale containing 30–35% recycled content using our dissolution technology and run them seamlessly on commercial packaging lines.”
“Finally, we must prove that our dissolution process can reliably produce food-grade recycled material that complies with EU food safety regulations.”
31 July 2026
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