Nexam Chemical Breakthrough: Enabling 100% Recycled Plastic in Food Packaging

This is not a lab experiment. It is a real industrial application where performance requirements are high, margins are tight, and alternatives are limited.

Why this matters

Recycled plastics have long faced a fundamental limitation: degraded mechanical properties. This has restricted their use in demanding applications like food-grade packaging. Nexam’s Reactive Recycling® technology directly addresses this challenge by restoring and enhancing material performance.

In comparative industrial testing, Nexam’s solution delivered superior results versus competing alternatives, demonstrating that high-quality packaging can be produced using fully recycled input.

From validation to commercialization

The project has now entered a late-stage phase ahead of commercialization, with an estimated initial annual value of approximately 6 MSEK. While modest in isolation, this represents a critical inflection point - proving scalability, customer adoption, and real-world viability.

More importantly, this is likely just the beginning:

• The application can scale across multiple production lines and geographies
• The technology can be applied to additional packaging formats
• Similar regulatory-driven demand exists globally

Why 100% recycled plastic is a game changer

• Cost advantage - Replacing virgin plastic reduces material cost and exposure to oil price volatility
• Regulatory edge - Exceeding recycled content requirements future-proofs customers against tightening legislation
• Commercial leverage - Enables access to large global brands demanding high recycled content
• Waste becomes value - Lower-quality recycled streams can be upgraded into high-performance materials
• No new CAPEX needed - Works in existing production setups, accelerating adoption
• Scalable upside - One successful application can expand across multiple products and markets

A structural tailwind

Markets like Canada are accelerating requirements for recycled content, with targets pushing toward 50% and beyond. The industry is under pressure to adopt solutions that work at scale - today, not in a distant future.

Nexam is positioning itself precisely at this intersection:

• Regulatory demand
• Cost pressure to replace virgin plastic
• Need for performance parity

The bigger picture

This breakthrough strengthens the case that additive-based solutions may be one of the fastest and most capital-efficient ways to scale recycled plastics usage globally.

Rather than rebuilding the entire recycling infrastructure, Nexam enables existing systems to perform better - unlocking higher value from the same waste streams.

Source: https://news.cision.com/nexam-chemical/r/nexam-chemical-advances-towards-commercialization-with-new-customer-in-canada-following-strong-indus,c4339132