What is deinking and why is it important in plastic recycling?
On the path to a true circular economy, one of the biggest challenges in the plastics sector is obtaining high-quality recycled materials. And although it may seem like a minor detail, printed inks on plastic packaging, both flexible and rigid, pose a major obstacle for recycling processes, as they directly affect the value, appearance, and purity of the recycled material.
These types of packaging usually feature printed inks they serve a dual purpose: on one hand, they inform consumers about aspects like composition, allergens, or nutritional values; on the other hand, they serve a commercial function by making the product more appealing. While they are essential for consumer communication and marketing, printed inks pose a significant challenge in the recycling process of these materials.
Printed inks are made up of a mix of resins, solvents, pigments, and additives, and their composition varies depending on the printing method and the type of plastic used as the base.
In order to overcome these challenges and achieve higher-quality recycled plastics, interest in ink removal technologies has been growing. However, despite their importance, there are still few effective technological solutions that can successfully remove the printed inks found in packaging.
What is deinking?
The deinking process specifically aims to remove inks adhered to plastics, both in flexible materials such as bags, films, labels, or wrappers, and in certain rigid formats.
Why is deinking important in plastic recycling?
1. It improves the quality of the recycled material
The goal of any recycler is not just to process waste, but to obtain a recycled polymer that can be reintroduced into the market. When printed packaging is recycled without removing the printed inksbeforehand, the resulting material often takes on dark colors — such as brown, grey, or black — which limits its use to low-value products.
Moreover, inks don’t just affect color, they can also release volatile compounds during recycling, causing unpleasant odors and altering key properties of the recovered plastic, such as rigidity, strength, or density. This combination of factors not only lowers the quality of the material but also reduces its commercial value, often leading recycling plants to reject it as “too contaminated” or “excessively inked.”
In this sense, deinking is not just an aesthetic matter, it’s a functional one. deinking no es solo una cuestión estética, sino funcional.
2. It reduces chemical contamination
Some printed inks contain heavy metals, solvents, or adhesives that can transfer to the recycled material if not properly removed. This poses a risk for sensitive applications such as food packaging, where high material purity is essential.
The use of technologies like those developed by Fych, including advanced treatments como de multilayer delamination and decontamination technology, is essential to ensure that recycled plastics are not only functional but also safe and high quality.
3. It enables compliance with regulations and standards.
Driven by the circular economy and European regulations, there is increasing demand for higher-quality recycled materials. deinking thus becomes a technical requirement to access certain markets and to comply with current safety and recyclability standards.
An added challenge due to the complexity of multilayer packaging.
The challenge becomes even more complex when it comes to multilayer packaging, made up of several layers of plastics and other materials combined to provide barrier properties, such as protection against light, moisture, or oxygen.
In this type of structure, the ink is usually not on the outer surface but encapsulated between the different material layers. This feature prevents conventional deinking and recycling methods, which are designed for monolayer packaging, from being effective. Traditional technologies cannot reach or separate that hidden ink from the rest of the material.
To effectively recycle this type of complex packaging, it is necessary to apply advanced technologies capable of delaminating the layers, exposing the ink, and removing it without compromising the quality of the polymer.
Advanced mechanical recycling at Fych
This process not only effectively separates the layers of complex packaging but also ensures that the recycled plastics, whether rigid or flexible, achieve optimal levels of cleanliness and purity for reuse in new applications. delamination technology that is part of our advanced mechanical recycling approach. This technology includes a deep washing stage, where specific aditives are used to remove both adhesives and printed inks present in plastic packaging, even in multilayer structures.
This process not only effectively separates the layers of complex packaging but also ensures that recycled plastics, whether rigid or flexible, achieve optimal levels of cleanliness and purity for reuse in new applications.
Thanks to this integrated solution, deinking is not treated as an isolated process but as a direct and effective outcome of our patented technology.
Conclusion
In a context where regulations are tightening and customers demand greater traceability and purity in materials, incorporating effective ink removal technologies makes the difference between conventional recycling and advanced, competitive, and sustainable recycling. Investing in solutions that include deinking not only improves process performance but also transforms previously problematic waste into resources with high potential for reuse.
