End of life · codes and supply chains

Recycling and end of life of plastic cores

ROLL Lab · updated 24 October 2026 · sources at the bottom of the page

Reuse first, then recycle

The Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC, Art. 4) sets an order: prevention, preparing for reuse, recycling, other recovery, disposal. The UK applies the same waste hierarchy. A sound plastic core is worth more as a core than as pellets. Before recycling it, ask whether it can go back into a reuse loop or be trimmed. Reuse and return loops.

Waste codes

Source: European List of Waste, Decision 2000/532/EC as amended; the UK uses the same codes (often called EWC codes). The final classification is up to the waste producer, in agreement with its waste contractor. In the UK, businesses must hand waste to a registered carrier and complete a waste transfer note (duty of care, Environmental Protection Act 1990, s. 34); in Italy, tertiary packaging cannot go to the municipal service (Legislative Decree 152/2006, Art. 226).

One polymer, one chain

A mechanical recycling plant sorts, grinds, washes and re-pelletises. It works well when it receives a single polymer. For cores the rules are simple:

• PP and HDPE: they float in water (density below 1 g/cm³) and are recycled in the polyolefin chain. PP and PE separate poorly from each other: better to collect them apart.
• PVC: density about 1.38 g/cm³, it sinks. It separates well from PP and PE, badly from PET, which has a similar density. The real problem is thermal: at the processing temperatures of PP and PE, PVC degrades and releases hydrochloric acid, and a few fragments are enough to spoil a batch. PVC cores must be collected separately and sent to rigid PVC recyclers.
• Filled PP: with about 15% calcium carbonate it is denser than water and sinks with the heavy materials. Tell the recycler (ROLL Lab analysis based on densities).
• ABS and PS: smaller chains; ask your waste contractor before collecting them.

Identifying the polymer helps everyone: the identification code (PVC 3, PP 5, HDPE 2, under Decision 97/129/EC) or a “>PP<” marking to ISO 11469 printed on the core prevents sorting errors. Black cores are harder to identify with the optical sensors of sorting plants.

End-of-roll residue

At the end of a roll there is almost always some material left on the core: the last metres deliberately left as a reserve for the automatic splice, or leftover rolls from end of batch, format changes or defects. A core with film on it is no longer mono-material waste: it usually becomes 15 01 06, mixed packaging, which you pay to dispose of. Separated, the same roll gives two streams with value: the core (to reuse or recycle) and clean film (secondary raw material for recyclate).

There are no reliable public data on how much material is left on cores on average in the different sectors. It is a figure every plant can measure: weighing cores with residue and clean cores for a month already gives an order of magnitude.

How to separate them: by hand with a knife (slow and risky for hands and core), with longitudinal cuts that ruin the core, or with machines that unwind or strip the residue and leave the core intact. ROLL, the publisher of this guide, develops a machine in this category (RECYCLO); others are available on the market.

Who collects used cores

• Licensed waste contractors: in the UK, check the carrier on the Environment Agency public register (or SEPA, NRW and NIEA); in Italy, on the national register of waste managers.
• Compliance and collection schemes for commercial plastic packaging, such as the platforms affiliated with Corepla in Italy.
• PVC recyclers in the Recovinyl network.
• Recycling associations: RECOUP in the UK, Plastics Recyclers Europe at EU level.
• The core supplier: some take back used cores or scrap to put them back into their own process.

Recycling figures

According to Eurostat (env_waspac, estimates), in 2024 the EU recycled 42.4% of plastic packaging and 85.3% of paper and board packaging; in Italy 50.1% and 92.2% (with a different definition). The PPWR sets plastic recycling targets of 50% by 2025 and 55% by 2030 (Art. 52). Industrial cores, collected separately and clean, are among the easiest plastic waste to recycle: their real rate depends almost entirely on how they are collected.

PPWR and recycling

From 2030 all packaging must be designed for recycling (grades A, B or C; at least B from 2038) and from 2035 recycled at scale. Plastic cores will also have to contain post-consumer recycled plastic (35% from 2030 and 65% from 2040 for “other plastic packaging”; 10% and 25% if contact-sensitive). In the UK, the 30% recycled threshold of the Plastic Packaging Tax pushes the same way. The circle closes: cores collected clean today are the raw material for compliant cores tomorrow. PPWR and plastic cores.

In five steps

1. Separate the core from the residual film.
2. Split the polymers: PVC on one side, PP and PE on the other, accessories apart.
3. Consider reusing or trimming sound cores.
4. Hand scrapped cores to a licensed contractor with the correct waste code.
5. Measure: how many cores, how many kilos, how much residue. These are the figures you need to decide.

Information summary, not legal advice. List of public sources, with no assessment of individual companies.

Frequently asked questions

Further reading

Sources

1. Decision 2000/532/EC, European List of Waste
2. Directive 2008/98/EC, Art. 4 (waste hierarchy)
3. Environmental Protection Act 1990, s. 34 (duty of care) and waste transfer notes, GOV.UK
4. Italian Legislative Decree 152/2006, Art. 226 (tertiary packaging)
5. Eurostat, env_waspac, recycling rates 2024 (estimates)
6. Regulation (EU) 2025/40 (PPWR), Arts. 6, 7 and 52, EUR-Lex
7. Association of Plastic Recyclers, PVC in recycling streams
8. Decision 97/129/EC and ISO 11469 (identification of materials)
9. Recovinyl, RECOUP, Corepla
10. ROLL Lab analysis (density of filled PP)