Agricultural films are indispensable in modern agriculture. Stretch films in particular are used to preserve cut crops – they enable airtight storage of round and square bales, for example in silage. However, after use, they pose a considerable disposal problem: Contaminants, additives, and high technical requirements (e.g., 80–100% elongation with an initial thickness of 25 µm) make recycling and the use of recycled materials considerably more difficult. High-quality closed-loop recycling has been virtually impossible until now – instead, the material has mostly ended up being downcycled.
The Fraunhofer Institute is setting new standards here: using a solvent-based recycling process, it has succeeded for the first time in converting used agricultural stretch films into recyclates whose quality is comparable to that of new material. This makes the substitution of new material in demanding applications both technically and economically realistic.
The focus is on transferring proven recycling concepts from the packaging industry to agricultural films. Targeted cleaning and processing produces high-purity polyolefin recyclates that can be easily processed into new, multi-layer stretch films. The practicality of this approach has already been successfully demonstrated in collaboration with industry partners – including coextrusion tests with up to 30% recycled content on our small-scale pilot plants. Significantly higher recycled content is even expected for large-scale plants.
• The quality and processability of the recyclates produced from solvent-based recycling are comparable to virgin material.
• Technologies for post-consumer agricultural films are established and scalable.
• Competitive in terms of cost thanks to optimized processes and efficient material flows.
This creates a genuine circular economy for agricultural films that offers both ecological and economic advantages – an important milestone for sustainable agriculture.
The Fraunhofer Institute shows how high-tech recycling and agricultural technology can be combined to strengthen both resource conservation and competitiveness.
Copyright: iStock.com/Bento Orlando
