Cross-industry alliance 4evergreen has released the second version of its Circularity by Design Guideline, with new guidance on beverage packaging design for recycling.

The newly added beverage packaging guidance will serve as a reference for the industry partners, manufacturers and designers to produce packaging that is recyclable from the beginning.

The guidance details different fibre-based composite packaging types and informs the designers on the compatibility of their design with specialised recycling processes.

This industry-backed guidance will allow the designers to choose the best recyclable alternatives for beverage packaging such as coffee cups, juice and milk cartons.

4evergreen chair Hans Wortman said: “We are delighted to have finalised this second version of the guidelines.

“It is the result of a meticulous screening of existing knowledge and in-depth expert research and discussions across the entire value chain.

“That’s what makes our guidelines unique. We now have a functional and holistic document where designers can find reliable recommendations to ensure fibre-based packaging is designed with circularity in mind.”

4evergreen has added this new guidance to its fibre-based circularity toolset after carrying out extensive expert-led research and discussions over a period of several months.

The newly released version of Circularity by Design Guideline builds on the first version, which was released in March last year.

The initial version provided various recommendations on the standard recycling process through comprehensive design tables for each product group.

All these recommendations have further been enhanced in the second version, along with some new additions to design choices for used beverage cartons and other similar packaging.

In the next steps, the alliance will release a final version next year to provide design suggestions focusing on “floatation deinking mills” and some specialised mills for fibre-based composite packaging.