Amcor and Taghleef join Nestlé to create Australia’s first recycled soft plastic KitKat wrapper

22 Mar 2021 --- Nestlé has co-developed a prototype KitKat wrapper made with recycled soft plastics, the first of its kind on the Australian market. 

The food-grade wrapper was created in partnership between Nestlé, Taghleef Industries and Amcor, as well as CurbCycle, iQ Renew, Licella, Viva Energy Australia, LyondellBasell and REDcycle.

“For grades with mechanically recycled content, the current legislation does not allow [rPP] use in food-grade packaging,” Monica Battistella, product manager and sustainability advisor at Taghleef Industries, tells PackagingInsights.

“Nevertheless there are plenty of applications where this is not a requirement so it definitely represents an additional valuable opportunity to further advance in the circular economy journey,” Adam Stewart, R&D manager APAC at Taghleef Industries also tells PackagingInsights.

Making soft plastics circular
Each party leveraged its individual expertise to collect and process soft plastic waste, turn it back into oil using advanced recycling technology and create the prototype KitKat wrapper.

“Using the mass balance approach to feedstock, we were supplied with chemically recycled PP granules from LyondellBasell. Through a multi-step manufacturing process, we produced a reel of metallized PP film with 37 percent chemically recycled content,” Stewart explains.

Taghleef supplied this to Amcor in Australia, which after conversion, consisted of 30 percent chemically recycled content.

Click to EnlargeThe recycled soft plastic wrapper is the first of its kind on the Australian market.“Being a trial, the available material volume throughout the entire value chain had to be carefully calculated at each step, by each partner, to ensure we achieved the required recycled content and volume of packaging,” he details.

Moreover, it was necessary for Taghleef to calculate and communicate the required recycled feedstock volume input considering Amcor’s required reel dimensions.

A recycled future?
Recycled plastics accessible via established circular economies are increasingly integral in fighting climate change. Innova Market Insights named “The Carbon Catalyst” its second top packaging trend for 2021.

Anti-plastic fervor fueled by the so-called “Blue Planet effect” has expanded into what could be coined the “Greta Thunberg effect.” 

Plastic pollution concern is undiminished but increasingly viewed as one of several environmental issues dominated by climate change.

According to a 2021 Innova survey, 39 percent of global consumers believe recycled material is packaging’s most important sustainability feature, behind only reusability (52 percent) and recyclability (50 percent).

Nestlé banks on circular economy
Sandra Martinez, CEO of Nestlé Australia, says the project had been driven by a shared determination to resolve the soft plastics challenge – and an “enormous amount of goodwill.”

“Between us, we have shown there’s a pathway to solve the soft plastics problem. Manufacturers like Nestlé will have a key role in creating market conditions that ensure all value chain stakeholders view soft plastics as a resource and not waste,” she adds.

Nestlé has pledged to reduce its use of virgin plastics by one-third by 2025. Last year, the FMCG giant also invested CHF2 billion (US$2.1 billion) in food-grade recycled plastics to drive circular innovations.

Click to EnlargeTapping into Innova’s top packaging trend from 2020, Nestlé employs “The Language of Sustainability” to market its circular moves.Keep resources out of landfills
A lack of both collection and recycling infrastructure makes it difficult to keep waste out of landfills and meet consumer demands for more sustainable packaging.

There is a significant mismatch in global supply and demand for recycled plastics. A study from last November found recycled plastic demand massively outstripping supply in the US. 

Across the Atlantic, the current quality of Dutch recycled plastic bottles and flacons is well-suited for various non-food applications but the demand for recycled plastics is lagging behind the supply. 

Meanwhile, Huhtamaki recently shared with PackagingInsights how recycled plastics are not possible in all food-grade applications. Environmental sustainability was also a focal point in a recent roundtable on confectionery packaging.

By Anni Schleicher

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