MCC Verstraete has been elected as a member of the new HolyGrail 2.0 Leadership Team. Under direction of AIM, the European Brands Association, MCC Verstraete and 10 other cross-packaging industry partners (a team of brand owners, recyclers, EPR organizations, …) will pave the future direction of the HolyGrail project.
HolyGrail 2.0
HolyGrail started off in 2016, supported by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. The main goal was to achieve a truly circular packaging economy.
Along with 28 cross-industry partners, the project investigated whether ‘tagging’ of plastic packaging could have an impact on the accuracy of sorting and recycling. This tagging could be done using different innovative technologies, such as chemical tracers or digital watermarks. The latter technique proved to be the most promising technology, gathering support among the majority of stakeholders. The first proof-of-concept on a test sorting line in May 2019, turned out to be a success.
Fast forward to the end of June 2020, when a new project facilitator was announced: AIM (The European Brands Association) will guide the second phase of this project - HolyGrail 2.0. The plan is to launch an industrial pilot to prove the viability of digital watermark technologies for more accurate sorting of packaging and consequently higher-quality recycling. The technology will be validated at a test sorting facility on industrial scale, with brand owners and retailers working together with packaging and technology suppliers to modify their packaging with digital watermarks.
A valued voice
Within HolyGrail 2.0, a Leadership Team composed of different packaging industry actors, will pave the future of the project. MCC Verstraete has been elected by the project’s participating brand owners as representative for the converting industry, together with Constantia Flexibles.
We’re honored to be in the Leadership Team and to be chosen by the participating brand owners to actively pave HolyGrail 2.0’s future. We are trusted with a valuable voice in the further development of this groundbreaking project, and we will apply our knowledge and experience on sustainable packaging solutions to make this a success.
Nico Van de Walle, Product and Circular Economy Manager at MCC Verstraete
