Nextek and Coveris have won Packaging Recycling Project of the Year at the 2026 UK Packaging Awards for COtooCLEAN, a breakthrough purification technology designed to enable food-grade recycling of post-consumer flexible plastic packaging.
The award recognises the development and industrial-scale demonstration of COtooCLEAN, which uses supercritical carbon dioxide (CO₂) to remove embedded contaminants from post-consumer polyolefin films – a significant technical challenge that has limited the ability to recycle flexible plastic packaging back into food-contact applications.
Developed by Nextek and brought to industrial-scale demonstration through a partnership with European packaging manufacturer Coveris, the technology offers a potential route to recovering higher-value recycled material from flexible plastics that have traditionally been difficult to return to food-grade packaging.
Breaking the contamination barrier
Unlike conventional washing processes, COtooCLEAN uses waterless supercritical CO₂ purification to remove contaminants embedded within the plastic. In its supercritical state, CO₂ exhibits properties of both a gas and a liquid, allowing it to penetrate polymer structures and extract substances such as oils, odours and other absorbed contaminants that conventional mechanical recycling cannot fully remove.
The technology can also use environmentally preferable co-solvents to target printing inks, adhesives and other residues, extending its potential application to more complex flexible packaging structures.
The process is designed to complement mechanical recycling by providing an additional purification step, with the aim of producing high-quality recycled polyethylene and polypropylene suitable for food-contact packaging, subject to regulatory approval.
This ability to recover material for higher-value applications, rather than recycling flexible films into products with less demanding material requirements, is central to the technology's circular economy potential.
A fully operational demonstration plant at Coveris' manufacturing site in Louth, Lincolnshire, is now providing operational data to support regulatory approvals while demonstrating the technology's scalability and commercial potential.
The facility, developed with funding support from the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, builds on Coveris' existing recycling capabilities and represents an advance towards creating a circular recycling pathway for post-consumer flexible films.
From concept to industrial scale
The transition from laboratory development to an operational demonstration facility was central to the project's recognition at the UK Packaging Awards, held in London on 7 October.
The technology's development received a major boost in 2022 when COtooCLEAN won the US$3 million Alliance Prize in Circular Solutions for Flexibles, awarded by the Alliance to End Plastic Waste to support the advancement of promising recycling technologies.
In 2023, the technology received further recognition when it won the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining's Circular Economy Award, as reported by PKN.
The partnership with Coveris has since enabled the technology to progress into an industrial recycling environment. The demonstration plant became operational in April 2026, with industrial-scale trials designed to generate the data required for European food-contact regulatory approval.
Nextek founder and CEO Edward Kosior said the latest award recognised both the technical achievement and the collaboration required to advance the technology.
“Flexible film is one of the hardest waste streams to recycle back into food-grade material, and this recognition from the industry shows how much it matters,” Kosior said.
“It is a credit to our team and to our partners at Coveris and the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, whose support has helped us take COtooCLEAN from the lab to an operational demonstration plant.”
Coveris CEO Christian Kolarik said the project demonstrated the importance of collaboration in developing practical recycling solutions.
“Working alongside Nextek, we have helped take this technology from development into a fully operational demonstration plant, bringing us closer to enabling food-grade recycling for post-consumer flexible packaging,” Kolarik said.
Lessons for Australia
The international recognition comes as Australia continues to grapple with the infrastructure, investment, policy and market challenges involved in developing a viable circular economy for flexible plastics.
Kosior, an Australian plastics recycling specialist and longstanding advocate for circular plastics systems, has repeatedly called for stronger policy settings, investment in recycling innovation and greater coordination between industry and government. His position has been that technological capability needs to be supported by policy certainty, commercial investment and viable end markets for recycled materials.
In a recent opinion piece for PKN, Kosior argued that Australia's packaging reform strategy needs to address the political and economic consequences of continued inaction. His earlier commentary on the Solving Plastic Waste CRC bid explored the role of coordinated research and industry collaboration, while a PKN Podcast interview examined the broader technological and systemic changes needed to improve plastics recovery.
The COtooCLEAN project provides an international example of how investment in recycling technology, supported by industry partnerships, can help overcome technical barriers to plastics circularity. Its progress also reinforces the importance of developing the regulatory and commercial frameworks needed to translate such innovations into viable recycling operations.
Next steps towards commercial adoption
The latest recognition adds to COtooCLEAN's industry credentials, with the technology also named among the British Plastics Federation's Top 15 Plastic Innovations of 2026 and nominated for a further four industry awards.
For Nextek and Coveris, the next stage will be to build the operational evidence required for regulatory approval and demonstrate the technology's commercial viability at scale.
For the wider flexible packaging industry, successful deployment could open new opportunities to incorporate post-consumer recycled polyolefins into food-contact packaging, helping to address one of the remaining technical barriers to closed-loop recycling of flexible films.
