Mondi trials digital watermarking to separate waste

Mondi has joined forces with AIM, the European Brands Association, and other partners across the value chain to prove the viability of digital watermarking for sorting waste at scale. According to the press release, the HolyGrail 2.0 initiative has the goal of assessing whether this pioneering digital technology can enable better sorting and higher-quality recycling rates for packaging in the EU, thereby driving the circular economy. Mondi was a founding member of the original Pioneer Project HolyGrail, facilitated by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Over 85 partners across the value chain are working together to refine and commercialize this concept, with Mondi continues its active role in trialing the innovative technology, it said. Postage stamp-sized watermarks on the packaging—which are not visible to the naked eye—make it possible to sort the material into specific waste streams effectively. Conventional sensor technologies (for example, near-infrared spectroscopy) cannot reliably identify multi-material packaging, so they can end up as contaminants when recycling mono-materials. Mondi says, with this new technology, it becomes possible to separate materials more accurately and generate new…

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