r-PET leading the charge
In recent months, Greiner Packaging has intensified its efforts around the use of r-PET. This is the only material that – when made from PET bottles – currently enjoys a positive opinion from the EFSA with regard to its use in food packaging. The company currently uses the material for injection stretch blow molded bottles, such as honey and sauce bottles. These are made of around 30 percent recycled material. The plastics experts are also working on 100 percent r-PET cups for the dairy and food industries, though these are not yet ready for mass production. In addition to bottles, they also currently produce thermoformed lids from r-PET. “r-PET is a major area of interest for us,” explains Stephan Laske, R&D Director at Greiner Packaging. “We expect it to be increasingly widely used in the future, given that mechanical recycling processes already operate efficiently in this category and there is scope for further expansion. Agro-based PET is also available on the market with around 23 to 25 percent organic content – sourced from Taiwanese sugar cane, for instance. These materials will continue to grow in popularity, too, with bio-based and chemically recycled materials also due to play a major role in the future, in our view.”
Furthermore, Greiner Packaging sees great potential in r-PET trays, which are made of 100 percent recycled content from PET drinking bottles. If necessary, they can also be made of material that has been greenlit by the EFSA, allowing them to be used in the food industry without any issue – as yogurt packaging trays, for instance. The advantage of this approach is that cardboard trays, which have often been used for yogurt until now, can quickly become damp in the refrigerated section, potentially resulting in contaminants migrating from the cardboard trays into the food. r-PET solutions remove this concern. Another ideal aspect for retailers is that the transparency of r-PET trays allows for maximum visibility, meaning that the sustainable solution is readily identifiable on the shelf. The trays also help to ensure that the products are stable, preventing them from falling off the shelf. In addition, the lightweight trays are very well suited for transportation – Greiner Packaging customers can even see the impressive results for themselves by running their own transportation tests. What’s more, r-PET trays are a sustainable packaging solution, since no lacquer coatings, chemical colorants, or chemical solutions are used.
