Major Milestone Achieved in the HolyGrail 2.0, the Digital Watermarks Initiative Aimed at Revolutionizing the Recycling of Plastic Packaging

Digimarc Corporation announces today it has entered semi-industrial trials, the next stage of development for intelligent waste sorting as part of the Digital Watermarks Initiative HolyGrail 2.0., driven by AIM, the European Brands Association, and powered by the Alliance to End Plastic Waste.

With the commencement of semi-industrial trials, HolyGrail 2.0 is on track to launch the highly anticipated phase of in-market demonstrations and industrial-scale trials, with the potential for digitally watermarked products to be added to stores in Denmark, France, and Germany by the first half of 2022.

As the selected digital watermarks technology provider, Digimarc is working with the two machine vendors, Pellenc ST and Tomra, to develop add-on modules for their detection sorting units. Testing is scheduled to take place via trials in two test locations in October 2021. Demonstrations of the prototype sorting detection unit will happen at Amager Resource Centre (ARC) in Copenhagen on October 19 and November 18, 2021. Interested stakeholders can register here.  

This milestone marks the second year of the HolyGrail 2.0 project, which has grown to include over 130 companies and organizations across the complete packaging value chain.

Read the Press Release

About Digimarc
Digimarc Corporation (NASDAQ: DMRC) is a pioneer and leader in digital watermarking solutions and the automatic identification of media, including packaging, commercial print, digital images, audio and video. Digimarc helps customers drive efficiency, accuracy and security across physical and digital supply chains. Visit www.digimarc.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to learn more.

About Digital Watermarks Initiative HolyGrail 2.0
The Digital Watermarks Initiative HolyGrail 2.0 – driven by AIM - European Brands Association and powered by the Alliance to End Plastic Waste – is a pilot project with the objective to prove the technical viability of digital watermarks for accurate sorting of packaging waste as well as the economic viability of the business case at large-scale. Digital watermarks are imperceptible codes, the size of a postage stamp, covering the surface of a consumer goods packaging and carrying a wide range of attributes. The aim is that once the packaging has entered into a waste sorting facility, the digital watermark can be detected and decoded by a high-resolution camera on the sorting line, which then – based on the transferred attributes (e.g. food vs. non-food) – is able to sort the packaging in corresponding streams. This would result in better and more accurate sorting streams, thus consequently in higher quality recyclates benefiting the complete packaging value chain.

Source:prnewswire.com