Weekly Roundup: European plastics heavyweights form recycling monitoring organization, KHS shrink packers adapt to 100% recycled films

19 Mar 2021 --- In packaging news this week, Petcore Europe, PlasticsEurope, Plastics Recyclers Europe and VinylPlus established PolyREC, an organization for monitoring and verifying plastics recycling and uptake data in Europe. Meanwhile, KHS announced its shrink packers can now process 100 percent recycled film. Also, Saica Flex unveiled mono-material pouch laminates for non-food contact applications with over 50 percent recycled content.

In brief: Circular economy progress
Petcore Europe, PlasticsEurope, Plastics Recyclers Europe and VinylPlus formed the PolyREC organization to monitor, verify and report their plastics recycling and uptake data in Europe. This will be achieved by using a common data collection system – RecoTrace. PolyREC aims to ensure traceability, transparency, and trust in recycled materials along the entire plastics value chain. PolyREC comes at a time where monitoring polymer circularity is paramount, especially in the context of the Circular Plastics Alliance (CPA). This system will be able to fulfill the CPA objectives, legislative traceability demands, and industry-wide plastic recycling pledges, the organization says.

KHS revealed that its shrink packers now also process shrink film made of 100 percent recyclate. With immediate effect, the use of recycled film is possible on all KHS shrink packers in the TSP, WSP, SP and PSP series. Thanks to their modular design, existing machines can be easily adapted. Fully recycled film is suitable for use with both PET and glass bottles as well as beverage cans.Saica Flex developed a range of mono-material pouch laminates.

Saica Flex developed a new range of ready-for-recycling mono-material pouch laminates, offering over 50 percent recycled materials in its production for non-food contact applications. The new pouch laminate is 100 percent based on PE (mono-material) and designed for recycling according to CEFLEX and PRE (Plastics Recyclers Europe) guidelines. The solution has been already tested successfully in pouch form-fill-seal lines for detergent monodoses and is currently being adapted and tested for other household, personal care and dry food applications.

Synova and Technip Energies entered into a joint development and cooperation agreement to commercialize Synova's advanced plastic waste-to-olefins technology in conjunction with Technip Energies' steam cracking technology. Netherlands-based Synova's patented thermochemical recycling technology closes the gap in the plastic supply chain by taking dirty and mixed plastic waste and breaking it down to its basic building blocks, such as olefin monomers and co-products, to produce circular plastics. The process has a low carbon footprint and displaces the need for virgin polymers, and reduces the need for intensive plastic waste sorting.Palmolive Ultra relaunched its dish soap in 100% PCR plastic.

Unilever North America announced a US$15 million investment in Closed Loop Partners’ Leadership Fund to help recycle an estimated 60,000 metric tons of US plastic packaging waste annually by 2025, an amount equivalent to more than half of Unilever’s plastics footprint in North America. The impact of Unilever’s new investment and its continued use of post-consumer recycled plastic packaging, which is approximately 59,000 metric tons per year, will underpin the delivery of its commitment to collect and process more plastic packaging than it sells by 2025.

Palmolive Ultra relaunched its dish soap product in 100 percent post-consumer recycled plastic bottle. The move is estimated to divert more than 5,200 tons of plastic a year out of landfills in the US and Canada, making Palmolive the biggest dish soap brand in North America to transition to 100 percent PCR bottles.

Veolia announced it will make a major increase to the amount of recycled plastic used in milk bottles, closing the UK dairy industry recycling loop. The project will see over 100 million new recycled bottles created each year by ensuring they are produced, distributed, consumed, collected, sorted, washed & reprocessed and made into bottles in the UK.Antalis extended its folding boxboards portfolio with Performa Light by Stora Enso.

In brief: Product expansions
Berlin Packaging expanded its in-stock wine bottle offerings to better serve small and mid-size wineries and ensure supply chain stability for winemakers of all sizes. The wide variety of packaging options accommodate any vintage and varietal, with claret, tapered claret and burgundy styles available in both clear and antique green, with cork and ROPE finish.

Antalis extended its portfolio of folding boxboards with the introduction of Performa Light by Stora Enso, an eco-friendly option for a variety of carton applications. Performa Light is a GC2 folding boxboard that is light in weight but high in bulk and stiffness. Combining smoothness, high brightness and whiteness, Performa Light boasts enhanced visual appearance. Moreover, a triple pigment coated top side delivers excellent print results while the white uncoated reverse side is industry-leading, Antalis says.Font Pincészet’s Font Secco wines in Canpack’s on-the-go format.

BASF expanded its Ultrason P material portfolio so it can be used to manufacture high-quality bottles by all three processing methods standard in the industry. The two polyphenylsulphone (PPSU) grades Ultrason P 2010 and P 3010 can be used in injection stretch blow molding, extrusion blow molding and injection molding to manufacture bottles for adults and babies that are safe to use, robust and chemically-resistant as well as available in numerous designs, shapes and colors.

In brief: Design team up
Canpack worked with Hungarian winery Font Pincészet to launch its white and rose sparkling Font Secco wines in elegantly designed, matt finish cans Canned wine has been growing steadily in popularity, especially for millennials, Canpak notes. Cans offer an ideal format for convenience and on-the-go consumption, while aluminum is widely recycled.

By Joshua Poole