Reuse · return logistics

Reusable plastic cores: how many cycles and how to get them back

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

How many cycles a plastic core makes

The number of cycles is not a property of the material: it depends on the roll, the temperature, handling and how the core is treated on return. Here is what the public sources we found say.

Above 20 cycles, public tests are rare. If you run a return loop that works, the most valuable figure you can produce is the real count of your own cycles.

Return loops

There are three main schemes, in increasing order of complexity.

1. Within the same group: the core circulates between departments or plants of the same company. It is the simplest scheme: one owner, no contract, direct control.
2. Supplier–customer: the film producer ships on returnable cores; the customer (for example a converter) sends them back after unwinding. You need an agreement on who pays the freight, who inspects and who absorbs lost cores.
3. Open, or run by an operator: a third party collects and reconditions cores from several users. Rare for cores, more common for pallets and crates.

In all three cases you need return packaging (dedicated crates, pallets or stillages, with a minimum quantity per trip) and a collection point at the customer, away from the waste bins. A core that ends up in the plastic skip never comes back.

The sums: cost per use and return threshold

In a steady-state system the cost of one trip is roughly: plastic price × share lost + return cost × share returned. Plastic pays if the result is below the cardboard price. With a core at 3.5 times cardboard and a return costing 20% of cardboard, at least 76% of cores must come back (ROLL Lab analysis). The return cost must include:

• collection at the customer and return packaging;
• transport, often full volume and low weight;
• inspection, washing if needed, trimming damaged ends;
• cores scrapped at inspection, which count as lost;
• administration: deposits, credit notes, inventory.

Try it with your own data below; method, assumptions and sources are on the dedicated page: the reuse break-even calculator.

A useful trick for return freight: cores of different diameters can be nested inside each other when the outside and inside diameters allow it. That reduces volume and therefore the cost of the trip.

The calculation is below. For the full version, with the formulas explained, open the calculator for how many cores fit on a pallet and a truck.

Deposit or charge: who pays for cores that do not come back

A return loop works when not returning costs something. Three formulas are common: a deposit (the core is invoiced and credited on return), a charge for missing cores at the end of a period based on a core account, and hire per cycle, with ownership staying with the supplier. In every case you need a shared core balance (shipped, returned, scrapped), an agreed scrap threshold and a price for lost cores. Without written rules the return rate falls year after year.

Incoming inspection

Every returned core must be checked before it goes out again. A minimum list:

The criteria must be set in writing with the customer. A clear scrap rule avoids arguments and protects the quality of the next roll. Sizes and tolerances.

Cleaning and hygiene

In the food and pharmaceutical sectors, a returned core is a potential source of contamination. Before accepting it you need a risk analysis, a validated washing and sanitising method, scrap criteria and a check of customer contracts. Washed cores must be dried and protected until reuse, for example in sealed bags. Hygiene and food contact.

Traceability: counting the cycles

Without a count you do not know when to scrap a core or whether reuse pays. Solutions range from simple to digital:

• notches or coloured rings added at each cycle;
• an engraved or printed serial number;
• a barcode, QR code or RFID tag with a cycle database.

The PPWR pushes towards the third option: from 12 February 2029 (or 30 months after the implementing act, if later) reusable packaging must carry a label and a QR code or other digital data carrier that makes it easier to track and to calculate trips and rotations (Art. 12(2)). Open systems without a system operator are exempt (Art. 12(3)).

What the PPWR says about reuse

To count as reusable, packaging must meet all the requirements of Art. 11: designed to be reused many times, to complete as many rotations as possible under foreseeable conditions, emptied without damage, reconditionable and, at end of life, recyclable under Art. 6. By 12 February 2027 the Commission must set a minimum number of rotations for the formats most used in reuse. We do not know whether cores will be among them.

Cores are not among the formats with reuse targets in Art. 29 (pallets, foldable crates, boxes, trays, crates, IBCs, pails, drums, canisters, pallet wrapping and straps). So reusing cores is voluntary today. A reusable core is still plastic packaging: when first placed on the market, the recycled content obligation of Art. 7 also applies. In the UK, the Plastic Packaging Tax is charged once, when the component is made or imported, not on each trip: reuse spreads that cost over every cycle. PPWR and plastic cores.

Why returns fail

• Nobody is responsible for the collection point at the customer.
• Return trucks leave empty or half loaded, and cost more than planned.
• Cores come back dirty with film and adhesive, and nobody cleans them.
• No scrap criteria: ovalised cores go out again and damage rolls.
• Nobody counts cycles, and after a year nobody knows whether reuse pays.

When the core comes back with a lot of residual material, separating it from the film without damaging it is the first step. Separating the core from the residue.

Frequently asked questions

Further reading

Sources

1. NS Packaging, plastic cores reused up to 50 times in a trial (2009), nspackaging.com
2. Fiaptech technical documentation, Smart Book “Which core?” (a company with corporate ties to ROLL)
3. Flexico, reusable reels and take-back of cores and flanges, flexico.com
4. Regulation (EU) 2025/40 (PPWR), Arts. 3, 7, 11, 12 and 29, EUR-Lex
5. IFSQN, discussion on reusing returned cores in food production, ifsqn.com
6. ISO 13542:2006 (ovality reference)
7. ROLL Lab analysis (cost per use, return threshold)