Styrenics Circular Solutions (SCS) announced the successful demonstration of the mechanical recycling of XPS food trays in partnership with Tomra and Krones. It is based on the high purity mechanical recycling process developed for yoghurt pots. Building on the high sortability of all types of polystyrene (PS), Tomra first used 'deep sorting' to produce a pure XPS feedstock out of mixed PS sorted from separately collected household packaging waste.

Krones then shredded, hot washed, dewatered and dried this feedstock. The test run demonstrates not only the technical capability of the process, but also the industrial feasibility to realise it competitively at typical recycling capacities, and with favourable levels of energy and water consumption. This process adds circularity to the widely appreciated effectiveness of XPS trays in ensuring food safety and their superior life cycle assessment.

To further promote their circularity by maximising the recycling yield and quality with this new recycling technology, SCS has developed a design for recycling (DfR) guideline for XPS food trays. Most XPS food trays are already in line with the guideline.