This study addresses two critical areas related to the European Union’s newly approved Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR): first, to create a Compliance Assessment Tool (CAT) designed to evaluate the risks and threats U.S. specialty crop exporters might face when exporting to the EU under the new regulations. Second, it aimed to assess the impact of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) contamination on the mechanical recycling of polypropylene (PP) packaging, considering the PPWR’s emerging requirements for biodegradable plastics. The successful application of the developed CAT demonstrates its effectiveness as a vital resource for identifying and addressing risks. Our findings indicate that U.S. specialty crop exporters may encounter compliance issues concerning the recycled content and recyclability requirements of the PPWR, particularly in transport packaging systems. Transport packaging systems are more complex due to the variety of materials used, making adherence to the regulations more difficult. The developed tool can be a vital resource, assisting exporters in optimizing the risk assessment process for packaging compliance. The second segment of the study revealed that while PHB contamination did not markedly hinder the technical procedures of shredding, washing, or extrusion, it did cause slight issues during the flotation phase, where small traces of PHB flakes remained in the PP float fraction. More importantly, during the extrusion and pellet characterization phases, PHB contamination affected specific material properties: the recycled PP+PHB pellets showed changes in color and odor, along with alterations in mechanical properties, such as the melt index and ash content, which exceeded the acceptable limits compared to virgin PP. While tensile modulus, stress at yield, and elongation at yield remained within acceptable limits, the tensile stress and elongation at break were below the acceptable threshold. This indicates a possible compromise in material quality when packaging converters process PHB-contaminated PP for use as recycled material.
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