Pellenc ST hosts Impackt Day event in Europe

Pellenc ST, a France-based manufacturer of optical sorting equipment, hosted the second edition of Impack’t Day at its Pertuis site on March 26. The event was co-organized by GS1 in Europe, with participation from Citeo and the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, and featured Polytag as technology partner.

Approximately 60 stakeholders from across the waste and recycling value chain attended, including operators, industry experts, PROs, institutions, brand owners and retailers. The focus was on invisible barcode technologies used for traceability and industrial sorting of household packaging scrap, enabling more precise identification and separation of materials and supporting new recycling pathways for flexible packaging and certain rigid applications.

Florent Gras, plastic segment director at Pellenc ST, described invisible barcodes as a breakthrough for tracking and sorting packaging at scale, while highlighting that collaboration and standardization are required to realize circularity.

A central theme was the importance of open standards to ensure scalability, interoperability and broad adoption across the industry. Stéphane Cren, GS1 France Head of Innovation, noted that alignment across the value chain is necessary, and that open and interoperable standards are essential to enable seamless interaction between sorting systems, packaging design and recycling infrastructure.

• Live demonstrations under industrial material sorting conditions
• Comprehensive overview of current state of the art from technical and operational perspectives
• Exploration of new recycling pathways enabled by granular sorting for rigid and flexible packaging
• Collaborative workshop with experts and industry leaders to identify and prioritize potential applications for household packaging

Will Addy, Chief Operating Officer of Polytag, described invisible barcodes as a foundational layer of the circular economy, linking packaging, sorting and recycling through data, and called the Impack’t Day event pivotal for industry leadership.

Participants noted the workshop sessions underscored the need for shared frameworks and open approaches to deployment across markets.

Laurent Bastida, director of studies and experimentation at Citeo, stated that the industry is moving from research and development to pilots, and that recycling capacity and recyclate incorporation must increase to meet future requirements; Citeo supports and funds R&D projects to improve collection, sorting and recycling of household packaging.