Berry secures Borealis’ first volumes of chemically recycled polyolefins for circular food packaging

29 Apr 2021 --- Berry Global (Berry) has secured access to Borealis’ first volumes of circular polyolefins made from chemical recycling. 

The volumes add to Berry’s access to 600 million pounds of post-consumer recycled (PCR) content by 2025, allowing it to meet customer demand for circular polyolefins.

The polyolefins are obtained through Borealis’ chemical recycling technologies, which recycle plastics not suitable for conventional mechanical recycling.

Berry highlights the chemically recycled plastics are food-grade and can fulfill the most stringent food quality requirements.

Chemical recycling investments
Last month, Berry announced it had secured access to another 300 million pounds of chemical recycled material. Continually increasing the demand for these processes is a critical component in the economics of achieving a circular economy, the company says.

“Investments in chemical recycling with partners like Borealis are critical to Berry and our customers as we collaborate across the value chain to solve the global commitment achieving net-zero emissions by 2050,” notes Jean-Marc Galvez, Berry’s Consumer Packaging International division president.Berry says it will use the chemically recycled PP to manufacture food packaging for long-time customers.

“Plastics are a critical solution as we advance toward circularity. As the preferred substrate for its lower greenhouse gas emissions, Berry’s design expertise with circular resins is an important factor in the journey to demonstrate the value of giving plastic multiple lives.”

Advanced recycling technologies are proliferating worldwide. Rabobank reports widespread investment in advanced recycling and expects the number of plants to at least double to around 140 by 2025.

Recycled food packaging
Berry will use the polypropylene (PP) from chemical recycling to manufacture recycled food packaging for long-time global brand owner customers.

A preferred substrate for food, plastic provides reliable product protection while also being increasingly recycled, the company points out.

The packaging will be manufactured at one of Berry’s existing European manufacturing facilities and launch in the upcoming quarter.

“Collaboration is a key driver of the Borealis promise to accelerate action in plastics circularity through our EverMinds platform,” says Maria Ciliberti, VP PO marketing at Borealis.

“As a result of working together with dedicated partners, such as Berry, a partner committed to transforming the industry as we are, brings us one step closer to achieving a circular economy for plastics.”Rabobank reports that advanced recycling plants are multiplying globally as a solution to plastic pollution.

Climate-friendly films
In other Berry news, the plastics packaging supplier recently announced it is investing more than US$70 million to support continued growth in consumer packaging films, primarily for e-commerce, food and beverage applications. 

The investment targets new multilayer blown film lines, infrastructure upgrades and other equipment that will come online in 2021 and 2022, across multiple sites in the North American manufacturing system.

Beyond the traditional infrastructure upgrade, the film lines will support the anticipated increased customer demand for recycled content.

The investment comes as the Fortune 500 plastic packaging manufacturer announces Science-Based Targets, reinforcing its commitment to a circular economy aligned with the worldwide goal of a net-zero economy by 2050.

Berry has committed to reduce absolute operational emissions (Scope 1 and 2) by 25 percent and supply chain emissions (Scope 3) by 8 percent by 2025 from a 2019 base year, in line with the UN Paris Agreement targets.

By Joshua Poole

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