Accessing the circular economy: Coexpan brings 100 percent rPET food grade sheet to market

25 Oct 2019 --- Acknowledging the importance of a circular economy, Coexpan is launching CorePET, the packaging specialist’s first 100 percent recycled PET (rPET) food grade sheet, specifically formulated for the thermoforming market. The company says that this will allow customers to recover PET resin and use it in future products. Coexpan is part of PET Sheet Europe, an association that aims to guarantee that PET products will have a mean recycled content of 70 percent by 2025 to meet goals laid out in the EU Plastics Strategy towards a new circular economy model.

“There are three pillars in the circular economy we are working at: reduce, reuse and recycle. Our vision of sustainability focuses on a clear commitment to the eco-design and recyclability of our packaging. Our new generation of packaging contributes to greater food availability and reduction of plastic waste by providing products that are recyclable and, whenever possible, includes recycled material upholding our contribution to the principles of a circular economy,” Marcello Colnaghi, General Manager of Coexpan in Italy and Germany, tells PackagingInsights.

The rPET sheets are readily available with different percentages of recycled content: 50 percent, 70 percent and 85 percent. There is a possibility in this latter case of reaching up to 100 percent and producing sheets in different colors for a variety of applications that include packaging for cheese, fresh pasta, fruit, salads, cosmetics or blister packaging.

The film, in its various grades, could potentially be applied to all applications in the company’s portfolio, from food to industrial. It has no technical restraints other than the homologation time and product phase that the client might require from time-to-time, according to their ruling procedures.

Europe is the reference market as it already displays the most mature and advanced legislation and ruling directives to stimulate and endorse the circular economy with plastic and specifically with PET, says Colnaghi. The company would not disclose the product’s price range.

Earlier this month, Coexpan Chile supplied recyclable PS pots to Nestlé, which collaborated with flexible packaging supplier Emsur Argentina to introduce a removable label that can be easily peeled off the pots without leaving any residue. This solution makes it easier for consumers to recycle their yogurt pots through existing recycling sites across Chile. Earlier this year, Coexpan also inaugurated a plant in Moscow, Russia, to manufacture extruded rigid sheet for the food packaging industry. 

As a general trend, the higher the recycled content, the higher the snap ability of the produced film.Challenges in food-safe materials
Food applications for rPET packaging are particularly tricky due to the highest levels of food safety being required when post-consumer materials are put back into circulation as food-use containers. CorePET meets the legislative requirements, including EFSA approval. The product does not rely on a “functional’ virgin PET barrier for food contact approval. All the raw materials used are suitable for direct food contact without any barrier layer.

“As a general trend, the higher the recycled content, the higher the snap ability of the produced film when all other parameters are kept constant. For some applications like multipack, this is even welcomed as it makes PET more like PS from this standpoint,” says Colnaghi.

He continues that translucency is also enhanced with higher contents of recycled material. “However, whenever requested by our client and their demanding applications, our experts have found ways through other means of keeping the main chemical-physical characteristic of the film almost constant across all grades of recycled content,” he adds. 

During the R&D process, re-designing and adapting its process parameters was a key challenge. This was necessary to offset and master the tremendously increased variance brought in by the mechanically recycled RM being added, which is not as stable as virgin material. “It is like skating across a frozen lake but with a much thinner ice layer underneath, less room for mistakes, but one can still make it by mastering the technique and control,” explains Colnaghi.

Overcoming these hurdles required a tight selection of the company’s partners and sources of recycled material. “The process also used the deep and intimate process knowledge from our Innotech R&D Centre, coupled with much higher skills and sensibility our line operators have developed during the program. It was also continuously supported by unique advances in control and automation technology,” concludes Colnaghi. 

By Katherine Durrell