NEWS

Plastic packaging is everywhere. From food trays and detergent bottles to flexible pouches and protective foams, it plays a central role in modern life and supply chains. Yet despite years of progress in waste management and recycling technologies, one major challenge remains: much of plastic packaging is still not designed to be effectively recycled. 

The CEN Workshop on ‘Characterizing polyvinyl butyral (PVB) recyclates’ was kicked off on 12 April 2024. The public commenting phase on the draft CWA is now open.

Laminated glass is obtained by bonding glass layers using a polymeric interlayer. One polymer used as interlayer is polyvinyl butyral (PVB). Up to now, most of the post-consumer PVB material in laminated glass is incinerated or landfilled, and only 9 % are recycled in secondary uses. Recycling of PVB presents several difficulties related with the contents of glass, humidity, mixing of compositions and polymer optical degradation.