PPWR from 12 August 2026: How Lifocolor masterbatches make packaging ‘PPWR-compliant’

• Prevention of packaging waste through improved design and more intelligent use of materials
   
• Recyclability of all packaging in the EU by 2030, with a requirement for effective recycling by 2035
   
• Minimum share of recycled materials for certain types of packaging: 10% for food packaging made of PP and PS, 30% for PET and 35% for non contact-sensitive packaging made from PCR (post-consumer recycled materials)
   
• Manufacturers will also need to provide proof of their recycling rates starting in 2035
   
• Requirements relating to reuse and refill articles – for example in the segment for “take-away food”
   
• Mandatory “design for recycling” criteria
   
• Requirements relating to collection and deposit systems

Packaging manufacturers, distributors and processors are facing the challenge of having to quickly and efficiently adapt their solutions to new market conditions. As a master specialist for circular economy solutions, we can assist you with this.
 

Our recyclable LifoCycle colour concentrates can withstand a large number of recycling cycles.

• All colourants used display high temperature stability and migration resistance
   
• The carrier systems have been adapted especially for use with both the recycled material to be coloured and its processing temperatures
   
• They are available for new PE, PP and PET products or recyclates on the basis of virgin carriers or up to 100 per cent PCR carriers
   
• The range includes colour masterbatches for creating customised colour shades, as well as black and white concentrates as standard products
   

Not all polymer packaging is detected in the sorting process. Inadequate pigments, such as carbon black or metallic effect pigments, can absorb near-infrared signals or reflect them back like a mirror.

However, our specially developed colour formulations enable reliable detection in the near-infrared range and are therefore a decisive prerequisite for effective sorting in recycling plants.

Lifocolor uses optimal colourants that make even dark or silver packaging sortable and recyclable. Our NIR-detectable masterbatches are available on the basis of virgin carriers or up to 100 per cent PCR carriers. 

Most of our products and our quickly available standard products are approved for food contact in accordance with 10/2011 EU and FDA regulations.

More about NIR detectable Black Masterbatches
More about NIR detectable SilverMasterbatches

The requirements for the additives used are increasing as a result of regulations designed to promote a circular economy. 

What is needed now are high-quality thermostable solutions that can withstand multiple recycling cycles after they have been incorporated into a material. 

Our LifoCycle Stab 5/132 rPET standard product with a pure rPET carrier includes a combination of selected additives that enables it to protect the contents of rPET bottles without significantly affecting their colour shade.
 

If you would like to use non-coloured recycled PET types, our LifoCycle Clear additive solution for rPET will enable you to achieve optical improvements. 

Among other things, this product balances out variations in colour, transparency and the desired target colour of the recycled material types. 

This means that unattractive green and yellow tinges can be balanced out, for example.

With LIFOLAS M additives, users can create unique, durable and abrasion-resistant finishes using their own or their partners' laser systems — without the need for printing inks or solvents, which can complicate recycling.

In addition to normal laser markings as labels, our additive masterbatches can also be used to transfer complex patterns and intricate graphics directly onto polymers.
 

Lifocolor has recently combined NIR detectability and laser markability into a single masterbatch solution for black or dark plastics. This enables them to be reliably detected in the near-infrared sorting process whilst also being permanently marked without the need for printing inks or labels.

The benefit for PPWR compliance is twofold:

→ Sortability in the recycling loop: black or dark packaging is no longer lost in the residual fraction and rendered worthless
→ Reduction of contaminants in the recyclate: marking directly in the polymer, without printing inks or solvents

Lifocolor is thus expanding its portfolio with a solution that addresses two key PPWR requirements in a single production step.

Not every packaging requirement is about colour. For transparent and translucent PET applications, we offer two masterbatch innovations that create decorative impact directly in the material — without lacquering, coating or labelling.

• Velvet PET gives clear PET bottles produced by ISBM the soft, matte grip usually associated with HDPE. The premium feel is created during the colouring process itself — mono-material and without introducing contaminants into the recycling stream.
• LIFOPAL delivers homogeneous light diffusion with a frosted-glass or milky effect in transparent polymers such as PET, PMMA, SAN or PC. The effect is generated within the polymer itself, not on the surface — making it fully compatible with mono-material strategies.

Both solutions are approved for food contact and demonstrate that transparent and translucent packaging can be designed to appeal without compromising the PPWR requirements for sortability and recyclability.

More about Velvet PET
More about LIFOPAL