Mono Material

What is a mono material?

A mono material refers to a product composed of a single material or fibre, as opposed to packaging made from different materials. This makes the recycling process much easier, as it reduces the amount of energy required to split or separate various materials. Plus, the increased efficiency means that recycling is much more cost-effective and faster.

Benefits of using a mono material

Downcycling occurs the recycling process results in materials of lower quality. For obvious reasons, this is not good for the environment or the packaging industry, for that matter. Sometimes the plastics may even be contaminated beyond reusability. If packaging only consists of one material, however, then we don’t need to worry about efficiency or quality in packaging lines.

Though it’s worth noting that packaging consisting of more than one material is not always difficult to recycle. For example, glass jars with paper labels are fairly easy to separate and then recycle. The same is usually true for other packaging materials with paper labels. Of course, these are not mono materials, but they do help to support circular economy models.

Using mono material can be 100% recycled

Since mono-material packages are composed of a single material or fibre, the recycling process is quicker and easier than other products made of multiple plastics or mixed with other materials such as cardboard or glass.There’s no need to tell consumer to separate components before recycling, or to pack properly for door-to-door recycling, you only need to tell them to put the packaging into recycling bin with full confidence because it’s truly 100% recyclable，which is an ideal answer to recycling.

PP/PE/PET are the best options, they’re recyclable thermoplastic polymer widely used in many different products already.