End-of-reel recovery & PPWR — a resource by ROLL, packaging for industrial rolls and reels

English
End-of-reel recovery · PPWR

Recover the core.
Recycle the material.
Prove it under PPWR.

At the end of every reel there are two assets most plants throw away: a reusable core and a quantity of clean, recyclable material. RECYCLO recovers both — and gives you the evidence you need for PPWR reusability and recyclability.

Request a valuation Try the configurator

Part of the ROLL ecosystem — the world's specialist in packaging for industrial rolls and reels.

RECYCLO core stripper separating residual film from the cardboard core of an end-of-life reel
2,500 kg/h
Soft plastics (LDPE, PP, PS)
1,300 kg/h
Aluminium
100%
Cores recovered intact & reusable
76-304 mm
Core internal diameter
The hidden cost

At the end of the reel, two assets become one waste cost.

The core — a tube you will otherwise buy again — is destroyed, and the residual material is thrown away mixed with core fragments, so it cannot enter a clean recycling stream. The usual methods each have a structural flaw.

Operator stripping an end-of-life reel by hand with a manual utility knife

Manual cutter

Labour-intensive, slow and dangerous: a hand-held blade against a tightly wound reel. It never guarantees the core survives undamaged, and it only makes sense in exceptional cases, on reels with very little material left.

Industrial guillotine cutting through an end-of-life reel and its core together

Guillotine

Only viable with many large-diameter reels. It needs a large floor area and a full safety perimeter, reel handling and positioning are neither simple nor safe — and it cuts material and core together, so the fractions can no longer be separated and the recyclate is no longer pure.

Unwinder slowly unwinding an end-of-life reel to recover the core

Unwinder

It does save the core — but the process is long. Unwinding plus re-granulation lines only work in dedicated spaces and at very large volumes.

Full comparison: manual cutter vs guillotine vs unwinder vs core stripper →

How it works

One clean cycle. Four steps. Two outputs.

RECYCLO cuts the residual material lengthways and stops before the core, so the material peels off by gravity into the basket below and the tube is released intact.

Step 1: the end-of-life reel is clamped onto the RECYCLO bar
1 · Load the reel — clamped on the bar in seconds.
Step 2: the operator sets core wall thickness and blade feed speed on the touch screen
2 · Set up — core wall thickness and blade feed speed, nothing else.
Step 3: the machine locks the reel and the guarded blade cuts the material lengthways
3 · The machine locks the reel and cuts — lengthways, stopping before the core.
Step 4: separated outputs - clean film collected in the metal basket and the clean core
4 · Separated — cut film in the metal basket, clean core out whole.
PPWR — Reg. (EU) 2025/40

The evidence that your reel packaging is reusable and recyclable.

PPWR applies from 12 August 2026, with design-for-recycling from 2030 and recyclability at scale from 2035. It rewards exactly what RECYCLO produces:

  • Reusability — cores recovered 100% intact go back into production, demonstrating multi-cycle reuse (EN 13429).
  • Recyclability — residual material leaves as a clean, single-material fraction that can enter its own recycling stream.
  • Traceable data — documented recovery figures per material, for your PPWR file.

How PPWR applies to reel packaging →

PPWR timeline: applicable 12 August 2026, design for recycling 2030, recyclability at scale 2035
RECYCLO reel core stripper machine, full view
The machine

RECYCLO — reel core stripper

Fully guarded, CE-compliant and protected by patent. One machine, one operator, two clean output streams.

Throughput
2,500 kg/h soft plastics · 1,300 kg/h aluminium
Cores
76-304 mm · 50 mm (special bar)
Max reel
600 mm dia. · 1,500 mm · 150 kg
Footprint
2,644 x 824 mm — under a third of a guillotine station
Safety
CE-compliant, fully guarded
Patent
Protected by patent

Full specifications →

Materials it handles

Films, laminates and aluminium — recovered clean.

Plastic film reels: LDPE, PP, PS, PET, HDPE, PVC

Plastic films

PETE, HDPE, PVC, LDPE, PP, PS — removed as a clean, single-material fraction.

Paper-based laminate reels

Paper-based laminates

PAP, C/PAP, C/LDPE. Mixed laminates when the dominant layer is supported.

Aluminium reels

Aluminium

Recovered at 1,300 kg/h, core released intact for reuse.

Interactive

Recovery configurator

Answer four questions about your end-of-reel stream and see, in seconds, what RECYCLO can recover — reusable cores, clean recyclate and safer handling.

The reel life cycle closing the loop: wound, stored, used, recovered with RECYCLO
The ROLL ecosystem

RECYCLO is one piece of a larger picture.

ROLL is the world's specialist in packaging for industrial rolls and reels: cradle pallets, wedges and chocks, flanges, cradles and stackers, metal racks — and recovery machines. Founded in 2012 near Milan, ROLL exports over 70% of its production to more than 30 countries, with 90+ solutions and several international patents.

The reel has a life cycle: wound, stored, handled, shipped, unwound — and then it ends. ROLL covers the working life. RECYCLO closes the loop: the core comes back for reuse, the material goes to recycling. That is why this site exists — one theme, in full depth.

About ROLL & RECYCLO →

Contact

Turn end-of-reel waste into recovered value.

Send us your reel formats and material specs. ROLL replies within 24 hours with an assessment of your end-of-reel volumes.

Request a valuation See RECYCLO specs

Write to us directly — info@roll-packaging.com