ITC PACKAGING SL

Their core work

ITC Packaging is a Spanish packaging manufacturer bringing real industrial production expertise to EU-funded sustainability research. In MERLIN, they contributed hands-on knowledge of multilayer plastic structures — the kind made from combined PET, PE, and PP layers that are notoriously difficult to recycle — helping develop chemical recycling and delamination methods that work at commercial scale. In SISTERS, their focus shifted to the next generation of food packaging: bio-based materials, home-compostable formats, and digitally enabled labels (QR codes, dynamic labelling) designed to reduce food waste across short supply chains. As an SME practitioner, they serve as the manufacturing reality check in research consortia — validating whether a material or technology is actually producible and deployable.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Both H2020 projects began in 2021, so this is not a long-term historical evolution but rather a deliberate dual-track strategy within a single funding cycle. The MERLIN track addresses the legacy problem: how to recycle the multilayer plastic packaging that already exists in the waste stream, using delamination and chemical recycling. The SISTERS track addresses the forward problem: how to design new packaging that causes less waste in the first place, through bio-based materials, compostability, and smart digital labelling. Taken together, the two projects reveal a company that understands packaging sustainability as a two-front challenge — cleaning up the past while building a better future.

ITC Packaging is moving toward packaging that is both digitally enabled at point of use (QR and dynamic labels communicating freshness or supply chain data) and environmentally benign at end of life (bio-based, home-compostable), suggesting future collaboration interest in circular economy packaging systems for food and agriculture.

How they like to work

ITC Packaging has participated in two large consortia without ever taking a coordinator role, which is typical of industrial SMEs that contribute manufacturing and market expertise rather than leading research programs. With 38 unique partners across 10 countries from just two projects, they operate in genuinely large multi-partner consortia — averaging roughly 19 partners per project — indicating comfort working within complex, multi-stakeholder EU research environments. For a consortium builder, they are a credible industry end-user partner who can ground-truth whether a packaging technology is manufacturable and commercially viable.

ITC Packaging has built a surprisingly broad network for a two-project SME: 38 unique partners spanning 10 countries, all within the EU framework. Their network spans both waste management and food systems research communities, giving them cross-domain connections useful for any consortium touching packaging, circularity, or food supply chains.

What sets them apart

Unlike university labs or research institutes working on packaging materials in theory, ITC Packaging is an active manufacturer — they know what is actually producible, at what cost, and with what equipment. This industrial grounding makes them a valuable validation partner for any project that needs to demonstrate real-world applicability, not just lab-scale results. Their simultaneous engagement in both recycling (end-of-life) and smart bio-based design (start-of-life) gives them an unusually complete view of the packaging lifecycle, which is rare among SME participants in this space.

Highlights from their portfolio

• SISTERS
  Largest funding award (€301,072) and longest duration (2021-2026), covering a broad systemic agenda from bio-based materials to QR labelling and food waste reduction across European supply chains.
• MERLIN
  Addresses one of the packaging industry's hardest unsolved problems — recycling multilayer plastics — with a specific technical focus on delamination and chemical recycling of PET, PE, and PP combinations.