Station 05: Recyclability and design for recycling
Grades A, B and C, the design-for-recycling criteria and the recycled-at-scale test that follows them.
The station guide
Working guides in this station
Recyclability and design for recycling Below Grade C: Technically Non-Recyclable Packaging and the End of the Line Under 70 percent recyclable means no market from 2030. Which formats live below the line, the difference between a redesign problem and a business-model problem, and the honest options for each. Recyclability and design for recycling Design-for-Recycling Criteria: What the Delegated Acts Will Grade The criteria architecture behind the grades: per-category tables scoring material choice, separability, labels, inks, adhesives and closures. What is known, what is delegated, and how to design against drafts honestly. Recyclability and design for recycling Grade A Packaging: What 95 Percent Recyclable Looks Like Grade A is the mono-material heartland: clear glass, plain metal, uncomplicated board, clean mono-plastics. The designs that reach 95 percent, the features that break it, and why A is a fee strategy as much as a badge. Recyclability and design for recycling Grade B and Grade C: The Middle of the Scale, and C's Expiry Date B (80-94 percent) is the long-term home of well-designed complex packaging. C (70-79) is legal from 2030 and gone from 2038. Who lives at each grade, what it costs per year, and how to plan the C exit. Recyclability and design for recycling Grades and Money: How Recyclability Sets Your EPR Fees Eco-modulation turns the grade into an annual price: better grades, lower fees, in every scheme that applies the modulation. How the mechanism works, where it is set, and how to model it in a range review. Recyclability and design for recycling How Recyclability Is Assessed: The Article 6 Method Per unit, by weight, against category criteria: the assessment method step by step - inventory the unit, score its features, compute the share, record the working, keep it current. Recyclability and design for recycling Improving a Grade: The Redesign Playbook From the sensitivity list to a shipped redesign: diagnose the deductions, rank the fixes by points per euro, sequence them on commercial events, and re-grade the drawings before the tooling. Recyclability and design for recycling Labels, Sleeves, Inks and Adhesives: The Features That Cost Grade Points The grade is usually lost in the accessories: full-body sleeves, dark pigments, bleeding inks, stubborn adhesives, oversized labels. A feature-by-feature field guide for design reviews. Recyclability and design for recycling Recyclability by Material: Five Landscapes Under One Grade Scale The same A-B-C scale reads differently in each material: glass and metal start near the top, paper defends its fibre, plastics split by format, wood plays a different game. The per-material map. Recyclability and design for recycling Recyclability Testing and Evidence: Proving a Grade Self-assessment is the law, but evidence is what makes it stand: sortability trials, laboratory reprocessing tests, protocol certifications and how to file them so an auditor can re-perform your grade. Recyclability and design for recycling Recycled at Scale: The 2035 Test That Design Alone Cannot Pass From 2035, packaging must not only be designed for recycling but be recycled in practice, at scale, against Union benchmarks. How the test differs from grading, who it is assessed on, and which formats carry the risk.