Materials & Packaging Materials & Packaging

Materials Science Breakthroughs & The Try, Try Again Model

If innovation had a lab soundtrack, it wouldn’t be a triumphant drumroll—it would be the quiet hum of “try again.” Dow’s research in food packaging and recycling technology reflects that rhythm: every experiment, win or lose, adds something vital to the story of progress.

Sponsored Content | This article is sponsored by Dow | By Larry Effler | Published 1 month ago | About a 5 minute read

Image: Dow

Not every experiment leads to a breakthrough. For every headline-making innovation, there are countless smaller steps that quietly map the limits of what is possible. Every “aha” is preceded by a thousand “oh no’s.”

Food packaging offers a vivid illustration. Brand owners, recyclers, and retailers all want more sustainable solutions. Consumers, too, want clarity: Do I need to sort my packaging? Do I need to rinse it? Can I just toss this bag in the recycling bin? These questions are part of why Dow invests in research and development, including projects that may not yield a breakthrough right away, but build the foundation for future ones.

One persistent challenge Dow studies is residue – the food dust, crumbs, and grease that sticks to the bag, wrapper, or container. From sugar crystals to melted cheese, that residue affects recycling on many levels – including what process is used, costs, and end markets.

Dow fosters collaborations with leading universities and research institutions worldwide in pursuit of the next innovations for a sustainable future. In fact, more than 90% of our R&D innovation pipeline is aligned with sustainability outcomes. Our R&D leadership is a key part of Dow’s materials ecosystem approach. We use a systems lens to look at the connections between interrelated technologies, processes, and people to transform plastic waste and renewable waste into useful materials.

Making Recycling Economically Viable

Packaging is as varied as the foods it protects. Local recycling systems vary widely in terms of the types of packaging they can accept. Unfortunately, less than 10% of plastic waste is recycled today. That makes research into better, more efficient recycling processes one of the vital elements of the materials ecosystem.

There is a growing push to create more circular systems for plastics, especially consumer packaging. To create a more circular packaging system, innovators must factor in how packaging design and material selection can impact the recycling process from collection, transportation, sortation, and reprocessing.

“We study how to align plastic packaging with the appropriate recycling process so more items can be recycled into new things,” Rebecca Mick, program director, Film & Packaging Innovation, Association of Plastic Recyclers. “We ask, what are the effects of a particular package on an established process, can the specifications for that process be better defined in order to prevent contamination while potentially expanding the opportunity for other packaging?”

The Study: Testing the Dry Process Hypothesis

A recent study at Iowa State University illustrates this principle. Co-sponsored by Dow and the Iowa State Polymer and Food Protection Consortium, conducted in partnership with the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR), the research examined whether a dry recycling process could handle certain food packaging. By skipping a washing step, a dry process could save time, money, and water usage.

APR conducts studies like this to better understand whether food contamination is a real or perceived barrier to recovering more materials, how in-store recycling and municipal curbside programs might expand the types of food packaging accepted, and how recyclers can better prepare and adapt their processes to new recycling streams.

Researchers focused on categories of food packaging with relatively low residue – snack puffs, sugar, shredded or sliced cheese, breaded fish sticks, and seasoned crackers.

The results? Even lower-residue packages have proven to be problematic. Sugar caramelized under the heat and residues clogged equipment. Except for sliced cheese packaging, the process confirmed what many suspected all along: dry-only recycling is not viable for most food packaging today. “This work is critical for understanding the impact of food residue on the recyclability of film and challenges with the current infrastructure”, Dr. Keith Vorst, Director, Iowa State University, Polymer and Food Protection Consortium.

Why the Findings Still Matter

It might sound like disappointing news, but in practice, the findings offer confirmed and valuable information that recyclers and packaging designers can use.

“Even though we evaluated the worst-case scenarios in this study, there is much optimism around the use of new technologies such as artificial intelligence sorting and wet washing procedures to increase recovery and recycling rates,” Dr. Greg Curtzwiler, faculty and senior researcher, Iowa State University, Polymer and Food Protection Consortium.

For recyclers, the research underscores that wet washing remains essential for these types of packages. The store drop-off program, which accounts for the majority of U.S. consumer-facing flexible collection, supplies material to both dry and wet processors and needs to consider the limitations of both. For brand owners, it highlights the direct impact of packaging design and residue levels on recyclability outcomes. For retailers, it provides data to weigh the realities of in-store recycling and consumer convenience.

“Knowing what doesn’t work closes off unproductive paths and sharpens the focus on discovering what does, which results in more innovative solutions,” said Dave Parrillo, Vice President for Research & Development, Dow Packaging & Specialty Plastics and Hydrocarbons. “When we know where the limits are, we can design better systems around that knowledge.”

Collectively, these insights strengthen the market for recycled content, help avoid sinking capital into unworkable solutions, and bolster brand trust in recyclability claims.

Broader Implications for Business Leaders

The lessons extend beyond plastics. Every industry faces what might be called the innovation gap – the distance between ambition and practical reality. The Polymer and Food Protection Consortium research is more than just a recycling case study. It highlights three principles that executives across industries can apply when navigating their own challenges:

Incremental insights matter. Even when results aren’t “positive,” they save time, reduce wasted investment, and point the way forward.
Systems thinking is essential. Our modern world is tightly interconnected, and progress in one area can deliver benefits in many others. In the case of plastics, packaging design, consumer behavior, recycling processes, and market demand are all linked. No single lever works in isolation.
Collaboration accelerates learning. The idea of the lone genius innovator is a powerful one, but no one stakeholder has all the answers. When companies, universities, and industry associations share work, their findings ripple out to influence standards, infrastructure, and behaviors.

Small Steps Toward Big Change

This represents a meaningful step in the larger journey toward a circular economy. Each result is also a building block – one more step that eventually leads to breakthrough.

As Dow’s Parrillo put it: “If we want to scale a circular economy, we have to value the experiments that don’t grab headlines just as much as the ones that do.”