That’s my recycled bag: SABIC and St. Johns Packaging develop circular economy bread film for Kingsmill

08 Sep 2021 --- SABIC, St. Johns Packaging and Allied Bakeries have teamed up to produce a 30 percent recycled plastic bread bag for the Kingsmill No Crusts 50/50 sliced bread. 

The bread bag complies with the UK government’s proposed Plastics Packaging Tax, which will enforce a £200 (US$275) per metric ton tax rate for plastic packaging with less than 30 percent recycled content from April 2022.

The levy is expected to impact around 20,000 plastics packaging producers and importers. However, according to recent Veolia research, the vast majority of businesses are not aware of the impending tax.

The Kingsmill recycled bread bags are made by St. Johns Packaging using SABIC’s certified circular polyethylene (PE) from post-consumer waste. The solution marks the latest market launch from SABIC’s Trucircle program for accelerating the implementation of a circular plastic economy.

From China to the UK
The joint project commenced in November 2020, with a trial phase completed in May 2021 at the St. Johns Packaging production site in China. Kingsmill then introduced the PE film bags with certified circular polymers to UK stores in September 2021.

The bags are made by St. Johns Packaging, a vertically integrated manufacturer of flexible packaging products with global operations.The 30% recycled plastic bread bag for Kingsmill No Crusts 50/50 sliced bread.

SABIC uses advanced recycling, converting used and mixed plastic into pyrolysis oil which is then used to produce new polymers with the same purity and quality as traditional virgin plastics.

“For such solutions to work in the long-term, the partners in the material value chain must closely collaborate,” says Abdullah Al-Otaibi, general manager for ETP and market solutions at SABIC.

“With our Trucircle program, we are pushing for innovative business models to transform our industry from a linear to a circular one and help prevent the valuable material of end-of-life plastic applications from being wasted.”

“Within a relatively short time, this remarkable joint project has shown what can be achieved to make this vision come true if all players work together to maximize post-consumer plastic recycling and sustainability.”

Transparent material tracking
SABIC’s circular materials are produced using mass balance accounting according to the International Sustainability & Carbon Certification PLUS program, which follows a set of predefined and transparent rules for tracking the material flow across complex supply chains from the feedstock to the final application.

The growing list of Trucircle solutions includes recycled plastic meat casings, transparent vegetable film bags and recycled polypropylene Nivea face cream jars.

“We welcome the advanced recycling route offered by SABIC as an opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to the circularity of plastics,” says Marc Leclair, President at St. Johns Packaging.Chris Craig, joint MD at Allied Bakeries, says increased supply of recycled soft plastic is vital to realizing circular packaging solutions.

“In collaboration with strong global partners, this breakthrough project is demonstrating the feasibility of reusing plastic waste in safe food-grade packaging rather than losing its value to landfill or incineration.”

More recycled plastic needed
Meanwhile, Chris Craig, joint MD at Allied Bakeries, stresses that more soft plastics need to be recycled to supply the material for projects like the recycled bread bag.

“We want everyone in the UK to know that bread bags can and should be recycled by taking them to larger stores, but what we really need is for the UK Government to bring forward the date when soft plastics like bread bags can be recycled as part of home kerbside collections,” he says.

In August, supermarket giant Tesco announced it is rolling out soft plastic collection points at every large UK store after a successful 171-store trial earlier this year in Wales and the South West, in which close to a metric ton of soft plastic was collected every day.

“The incorporation of recycled content has been a key area of focus over the past few years. By supporting the circular economy, giving value to plastics and promoting its use in other packaging products, we hope to contribute efforts to tackle the enormous challenge of improving recycling rates and finding solutions to the plastic waste issue,” adds Leclair at St. Johns Packaging.

By Joshua Poole