The Circular Plastics Taskforce, Éco Entreprises Québec and Recycle BC Launch the BiblioFlex Project to Deepen Insights into Flexible Plastic Packaging
Montreal, QC, December 4, 2025 — The Circular Plastics Taskforce (CPT), Éco Entreprises Québec and Recycle BC are proud to announce the official launch of BiblioFlex, a groundbreaking initiative aimed at improving the understanding of flexible plastic packaging composition and its market dynamics across Canada.
By integrating scientific rigor with real-world expertise, BiblioFlex aims to inform improved packaging design and recycling processes, ultimately contributing to a more circular economy for flexible plastic packaging. This will be achieved through detailed composition analysis via laboratory testing and characterization by market sector, combining technical data with industry insights. Testing will begin by the end of 2025, with the first project results anticipated in summer 2026.
“We are extremely proud of this initiative, which reflects our mission to foster collaboration and innovation in the management of post-consumer plastics in Canada. This project marks an important milestone in our national expansion strategy and will strengthen our collective understanding of a family of packaging that represents roughly half of all plastic packaging generated in the country. The CPT is committed to helping find better ways to recover those materials and preserve their value by giving them a second life,” said Marie-Anne Champoux-Guimond, Co-Chair of the CPT’s Board of Directors.
‘’With the expansion of expanded producer responsibility (EPR) across Canada, collection programs have started accepting a wider range of flexible plastic packaging. Better understanding the specific composition of that stream is therefore more relevant than ever”, says Normand Gadoury, Vice-President, Innovation and Infrastructure Projects at Éco Entreprises Québec.
"This project allows us to continue to build on current advancements with flexible plastic packaging. It will help identify best practices in design and improve processing capacities to support higher quality recycled materials, and stronger end-markets, furthering innovation and collective impact”, says Sam Baker, Executive Director of Recycle BC.
BiblioFlex will be implemented through two regional hubs located in Quebec and British Columbia and will bring together numerous industry experts from across Canada. More details on these hubs, their respective structures, and the project’s technical partners will be shared in early 2026 and will be made available here.
About the Circular Plastics Taskforce
The Circular Plastics Taskforce (GAPC) seeks to promote the implementation of a circular economy for post-consumer plastics in Québec and throughout Canada. The CPT aims to improve the alignment between end-markets’ needs for recycled resins and the recycling value chain, by identifying and implementing concrete optimization solutions that can be deployed in the short and medium term. The CPT is led by Cascades, the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada (CIAC), Circular Materials, Danone Canada, Éco Entreprises Québec (ÉEQ), Keurig Dr Pepper Canada, ProAmpac and Recycle BC. For more details on the CPT, visit www.circularplastics.ca.
About Éco Entreprises Québec
Éco Entreprises Québec, a private non-profit organization, is the new manager of the entire curbside recycling system and represents companies that market containers, packaging, and printed paper in Quebec. Our mission is to enable Quebecers to recover more and better, ensure a second life for recyclable materials and contribute to the circular economy throughout the province. Bin Impact, the new reference in curbside recycling in Quebec, aims to educate on the right way to sort materials and to raise awareness of the impact of what we put in the bin. Éco Entreprises Québec counts close to 2,700 producer members, whether their place of business is here or elsewhere in the world. The latest list of members is published in the annual report.
About Recycle BC
Recycle BC is a not-for-profit organization responsible for residential packaging and paper recycling throughout British Columbia. Recycle BC ensures packaging, and paper products are collected from residential households and recycling depots, sorted and responsibly managed and recycled, working closely with communities and partners to ensure efficient and responsible recycling. The organization also educates the public on proper recycling practices to support a cleaner, more sustainable environment. As a full extended producer responsibility (EPR) program, Recycle BC program is funded by businesses like retailers, manufacturers, and restaurants that supply packaging and paper products to BC residents. Learn more at RecycleBC.ca.
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INFORMATION
Pierre Benabidès
General Manager, CPT
info@gapc.ca
The Circular Plastics taskforce bolsters leadership by welcoming Circular Materials and Recycle BC
MONTREAL, Québec, April 16, 2025 —The Circular Plastics Taskforce (CPT) is pleased to announce the expansion of its membership with the addition of Circular Materials and Recycle BC on its Board of Directors. These new members will continue to enhance the important work of the CPT and strengthen CPT’s governance structure to include three leading Canadian Producer Responsibility Organizations (PROs), joining current member Éco Entreprises Québec.
“Circular Materials is excited to join the CPT Board of Directors and work closely with business and industry leaders to collaborate, share best practices and drive innovation,” said Allen Langdon, CEO, Circular Materials. “Working together, we will undertake key research and initiatives to help solve important challenges and drive collective impact. “
“We are excited to formalize our commitment to the Circular Plastics Taskforce,” said Sam Baker, Executive Director, Recycle BC. “This important collaboration will allow all partners to continue to play a leading role in advancing solutions for optimizing plastics recycling, including work already underway with Recycle BC, like Biblioflex, a project to improve the understanding of flexible plastic packaging composition to better address packaging design and recycling processes”.
Launched in 2020, the CPT is a one-of-a-kind initiative dedicated to finding concrete solutions for improving post-consumer plastics management. It brings together four major food, beverage, and packaging companies in Canada—Cascades, Danone Canada, Keurig Dr Pepper Canada and ProAmpac—with the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada and Éco Entreprises Québec. The addition of Circular Materials and Recycle BC underscores the CPT’s commitment to supporting the advancement of extended producer responsibility (EPR) and the implementation of efficient recycling systems across Canada. This collaboration aims to enhance post-consumer plastic packaging recycling and advance the circular economy.
“We are delighted to welcome Baltej Gill, Vice-President of Data Management and Program Delivery from Circular Materials, and Sam Baker, Executive Director of Recycle BC, to our board of directors,” stated Marie-Anne Champoux-Guimond, co-Chair of the CPT Board of Directors. “Expanding our governance structure is vital as we aim to have an impact across all regions of Canada, while achieving a balanced perspective among brand owners, PROs, manufacturers, and industry representatives.”
This announcement was made during a CPT-led session held as part of the Canadian Circular Economy Summit in Montreal, where the CPT also shared the latest developments on its ongoing projects. Highlights included the launch of two new publications focused on food-grade recycled plastics and PET thermoforms. To read more about these publications, please click here.
About the Circular Plastics Taskforce
The Circular Plastics Taskforce (CPT) seeks to promote the implementation of a circular economy for post-consumer plastics in Québec and throughout Canada. The CPT aims to improve the alignment between end-markets’ needs for recycled resins and the recycling value chain, by identifying and implementing concrete optimization solutions that can be deployed in the short and medium term. The CPT is led by Cascades, the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada (CIAC), Circular Materials, Danone Canada, Éco Entreprises Québec (ÉEQ), Keurig Dr Pepper Canada, ProAmpac and Recycle BC. For more details on the CPT, visit www.gapc.ca.
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INFORMATION
Justin Meloche
514-995-9704
jmeloche@national.ca
Best Practices for PET Thermoform RECYCLING
For more than 30 years, PET bottles have been collected and recycled in North America.
In the last 15 years, PET thermoforms (PET TF), such as trays and clamshells, have also been introduced in
the recovery stream.
See PDF | Best practices for recycling
Advancing Food-Grade Recycled Plastics in Canada
The best practices identified in this White Paper, that targets both industry stakeholders and food safety authorities, provide a path forward to improve clarity and ease in navigating the system.
Consult PDF | Challenges and regulatory perspectives
Preliminary analysis | Digital watermarking
Preliminary analysis of improving sorting capacity for flexible packaging using digital watermarking technology
Consult PDF
APR and the Circular Plastics Taskforce (CPT) Join Forces to Advance Plastics Recycling Solutions
September 23, 2024 - The Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) and Canada’s Circular Plastics Taskforce (CPT) are announcing a partnership to improve North American plastics recycling systems through pilot and research projects. APR and the CPT share the common goal of enhancing plastics recycling capacities through better packaging design and technology improvements.
The APR has long recognized that significant, system-wide change is imperative to realize a circular economy for plastics. Through fostering innovation and collaboration, APR partners with the CPT in taking meaningful steps to develop solutions that maximize the volumes of all plastics that can be recycled and increase the use of recycled plastic content in products.
"The Circular Plastics Taskforce is helping to develop and implement sortation and recycling solutions in Canada for hard-to-recycle plastics in the context of extended producer responsibility programs across the country," said Steve Alexander, APR President & CEO. "APR's tools and resources are the starting point for enabling compatibility between package designs and the recycling infrastructure. By leveraging each organization’s strengths, we will help achieve an effective and robust plastics recycling system in Canada and beyond.”
The CPT focuses on a better alignment between market needs and the recycling value-chain to propose concrete solutions to optimize plastics management in a circular economy. It brings together industry leaders to evaluate and improve recovery and recycling of post-consumer plastics collected from Canadian households. Since its inception, the group’s unique collaborative approach has attracted support from government and industry partners across North America.
“Our common goal is to increase the use of recycled content in plastic packaging. For that to happen, we need improved sortation and recycling capacities, which are particularly needed for hard-to-recycle plastics such as flexibles and PET Thermoforms,” said Marie-Anne Champoux-Guimond, Co-chair of the CPT’s Board of Directors. “Bringing APR’s packaging design expertise and industry perspective in our projects will complement our approach and unlock new opportunities for improvement across the value chain.”
APR Contact:
Kara Pochiro
VP of Communications & Public Affairs
kara@plasticsrecycling.org
CPT Contact:
Pierre Benabidès
General Manager
info@gapc.ca
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The Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) is an international non-profit and the only North American organization focused exclusively on improving recycling for plastics. APR's tools and resources help companies design packaging that can be recycled, support innovations that overcome existing recycling challenges, and encourage stable and reliable markets for post-consumer recycled content. Visit plasticsrecycling.org for more information.
The Circular Plastics Taskforce (CPT) seeks to promote the implementation of a circular economy for post-consumer plastics in Québec and throughout Canada. The CPT aims to improve the alignment between end-market needs for recycled resins and the recycling value chain, by identifying and implementing concrete optimization solutions that can be deployed in the short- and medium-term. The CPT is lead by Cascades, Danone Canada, Dyne-a-pak, Keurig Dr Pepper Canada, the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada (CIAC) and Éco Entreprises Québec (ÉEQ). For more details on the CPT, visit www.gapc.ca.
A fresh outlook for PET thermoform
PET bottles are often identified as the most commonly recycled plastic in North America. However, some technical and economic barriers can limit the recycling of other PET packaging formats, such as thermoformed trays and clamshells, from being effectively recycled. This represents a significant undertaking for the industry, knowing that the use of PET thermoforms for all types of packaging (such as food, electronics, and cosmetics) has increased significantly over the past few years.
The long road to fix flexible plastics recycling in Canada
Boosting flexible plastic packaging recycling in Canada from the current 3-4 percent recycling rate to the 25-plus percent rate that some provinces are calling for will require years of work and sizable investments, according to a new report from the Canada Plastics Pact.