A case for designing flexible plastic packaging for the circular economy

The Project was led by Mondi Group and facilitated by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. The participant
group consisted of representatives from APK, BASF, Borealis, CEFLEX, Constantia Flexibles, Danone,
GreenCycle, Henkel, Huhtamaki, L’Oréal, LWARB, Nestlé, PepsiCo, RPC-BPI, Sloop, SUEZ, Target, Tomra
and Werner-Mertz.

Plastic waste poses a growing risk to the economy,
environment and society. A response is to create a circular
economy for plastic that eliminates plastic waste and
pollution at source. Against this backdrop, Project Proof
set out to design and prototype a plastic-based flexible
packaging solution in collaboration with customers,
competitors and all stakeholders across the value chain,
that is scalable, commercially viable, and which can be
processed in sorting and recycling facilities.
Project Proof involved the prototyping of a packaging
solution in the pre-competitive stage to demonstrate
proof of concept and tangible outcomes. Over the
course of the project (November 2017 to May 2019), the
participants worked together with open communication
and equal opportunity to contribute to and influence
its development. The ultimate aim is to tender an actual
product with market value in the competitive stage (post
May 2019).
Compliance with EU Competition Law was essential,
given that the project team were supply chain partners,
customers, suppliers and competitors, embarking
on a pre-competitive collaboration with commercial
potential. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation developed
an acknowledgement form as a legal framework for the
project, which the participants signed