Over two years, 15 industry advisors worked closely with labs, academics and stakeholders to refine the Designing for a Circular Economy (D4ACE) guidelines. We sat down with a few of them to hear what stood out from the testing programme… and what comes next.
Interview with Jean-Paul Duquet, Sustainability Director, Flexible Packaging Europe (FPE) and a key advisor to the ‘Phase 2’ testing project.
How do these updated guidelines help different parts of the value chain – from designers to recyclers – make better packaging decisions?
Recyclability can sound deceptively simple – but in reality, especially for flexible packaging, it’s anything but. We’re dealing with a wide range of materials, often layered together for performance, and designed to be lightweight and highly functional.
That’s why detailed, reliable and flexible-specific guidance like ‘Designing for a Circular Economy’ (D4ACE) is so valuable. It gives packaging designers, whether working in brand teams or at converters, a clear and structured way to assess how recyclable their packaging is, and where improvements can be made. It’s grounded in European infrastructure and based on real testing of an outstanding number of samples.
‘Detailed, reliable and flexible-specific guidance like ‘Designing for a Circular Economy’ (D4ACE) is so valuable. It gives packaging designers a clear and structured way to assess how recyclable their packaging is, and where improvements can be made’
But it doesn’t stop there. The guidance offers a comprehensive view of all the components and conditions that impact recyclability – from material choices and adhesives to sorting behaviour and recyclate quality.
That makes it useful for everyone: raw material producers, converters, packers, brands, sorting centre operators and recyclers. It helps each of them understand their role in the bigger picture and plan investments – whether in R&D, design upgrades or sorting and recycling infrastructure – with more confidence and direction.
In your view, why is adoption of this guidance essential for companies aiming to meet upcoming PPWR targets for recyclability and recycled content – and what additional value does it provide?
Designing for recyclability is no longer optional; it’s already a requirement for future compliance, and will only become more important as the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) comes into force.
D4ACE was developed precisely with that shift in mind . It reflects what recyclability by design means in practice for flexible packaging – based on current infrastructure in Europe, guided by testing, and shaped through transparent collaboration across the entire value chain.
Companies adopting this guidance now are positioning themselves well to meet the upcoming legal requirements – and more than that, to innovate within them. D4ACE is not just a checklist. It’s a reliable benchmark with extensive educational pieces that can support clearer dialogue with suppliers, stronger design decisions, and more stable progress toward recyclability and recycled content targets.
And there’s a broader impact too. As regulators shape the final provisions of the PPWR and its implementing acts, guidance like D4ACE, which are open, evidence-based and co-created by industry, has already been – and will continue to be – a key reference. Its uptake today can influence both compliance and the policies still to come.
Jean-Paul Duquet, Sustainability Director, Flexible Packaging Europe (FPE)