ErgisMark®

ErgisMark® is an innovative technology of marking and selecting different materials in multi-material packaging that makes it possible to effectively minimize the volume of waste by improved management of streams of materials in the recycling process. This technology represents an efficient implementation of the principles of the Circular Economy.

What is the ErgisMark® technology?

This is an innovative method that enables its users to recycle those types of packaging that have not been recyclable before because of inability to identify particular materials in the structure. This solution can considerably increase the level of material recycling in exchange for a low financial expenditure. ErgisMark® assumes that materials will be identified and recovered on the basis of a kind of “nameplate” or “barcode” that is placed as an appropriate fluorescence marker during the product forming process and washable after sorting.

This innovative technology makes it possible to use a multi-layer material being a varnish with a different qualitative composition of markers (i.e. fluorescent compounds), as well as to print various graphic marks on packaging surfaces. The picture below shows examples of marker prints on product packaging.

Each combination of markers is a different version of the code and can be used to mark a different material in its production process. With such an innovative approach, every material in the packaging structure can be identified and recycled. The coating material will be washed in the recycling process and, as a result, the markers and a stream of highly uniform material will be recovered.

ErgisMark® technology can improve the material sorting process

This technology is a process for the systemic sorting of waste, which means the sorting of waste from a mixed stream. The core of the method is fluorescent markers that are put on materials to enable their efficient sorting to receive clean fractions, which has been practically impossible to date for multi-compound materials. With those markers, materials can be detected and identified on the basis of the emission spectrum of a marker and an optical pattern. In addition to recovery of clean streams of materials, the ErgisMark® technology enables the recovery of markers (washed during the recycling process), so those new streams of materials are also a kind of product innovation.

Advantages of ErgisMark® technology

The ErgisMark® technology will make it possible to create a new reality for recycling systems by designing packaging that will be useful, in the first place, for the purposes of recycling of materials, but also to redirect appropriate streams of materials to chemical, organic etc. recycling.

ErgisMark® technology as practical implementation of the Circular Economy principles

This effective sorting technology creates new possibilities to minimize waste and, as a result, gain both material-related and financial benefits. It eliminates the impossibility and inefficiency of identification of a material type, leading to higher volumes of materials recovered in the recycling process. The advantages offered by ErgisMark® include a higher level of recycling, in particular in case of packaging that has not been recyclable before, and easy detection and low cost, which no other method can offer. With the ErgisMark® technology, its users can make a better use of not only consumer waste, but also of production and industrial waste, as the process used to sort materials can be improved irrespective of their form or shape if markers have been added in the production process. In an ErgisMark® system, not only streams of clean materials, but also markers can be recovered, which reinforces the implementation of the Circular Economy concept. Recovered materials can be re-used in subsequent production cycles.      

ErgisMark® is a real innovation

ErgisMark® is a breakthrough and unique technology on the global level. This absolutely original solution minimizes the volume of packaging waste that has been unrecyclable to date because of inability to identify it. What makes this method genuinely unique is the easy identification of every type of material in a complex packaging structure. This technology required a relatively low financial expenditure, which no other method used to date can ensure. In addition, ErgisMark® is applied on surface and reversible, which means that markers can be washed and recovered too.

Another innovative feature of ErgisMark® is associated with direct consumer behaviors. If it becomes a widespread systemic recycling technology, it will change the way our society perceives the recycling concept itself.

The ErgisMark® technology can help find an answer to some frequently asked questions, for example: “How to reduce the volume of waste in the nearest environment?” or “How can we reduce the volume of plastic waste?”

For more information about the ErgisMark® technology, please see: ErgisMark® - presentation