Paper for recycling is the main raw material used by the European paper industry especially for packaging grades. As these packaging products are usually returned into the paper recycling loop, a method based on a standard stock preparation line for packaging products was developed to assess in laboratory scale the recyclability of packaging products. This tool was used to assess the recyclability of a large number of samples collected in five EU countries belonging to several product categories. The evaluation of the recycling process efficiency and the quality of the achieved pulp after recycling, was carried out by measuring coarse reject, flake content, macrosticky area below 2,000 µm and optical homogeneity. The recyclability tests showed very high deviation of the results between and within the different product categories due to the product design that is mostly affected by the purpose of the packaging product. Complex multi-material packaging showed the greatest coarse reject values whereas the highest macrosticky values were found in shopping bags. The large variation within the same category of products may suggest that there is room to improve the recyclability behaviour adopting proper recycling oriented design solutions.
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