Weekly Roundup: Mondelēz joins Circulate Capital Ocean Fund, Tri-Star launches home compostable food boxes

12 Nov 2021 --- In packaging news this week, Mondelēz International joined the Circulate Capital Ocean Fund (CCOF), investing in collecting, sorting and recycling plastic waste, including flexible films. Meanwhile, Tri-Star Packaging introduced home compostable, recyclable food boxes with a seaweed coating. Also, Greiner Packaging equipped UK-based Nush Foods with its recyclable K3 cardboard-plastic cup.

In brief: Circular economy investments
Mondelēz International joined CCOF as a limited partner. The FMCG giant invested in CCOF to support scalable business solutions for developing infrastructure for collecting, sorting and recycling plastic waste, including flexible films. The investment’s goal, part of Mondelēz International’s Sustainable Futures impact investing platform, is enhancing focus on the physical collection of flexible films – lightweight, multi-layer plastics used by the snacking industry – that have traditionally been more difficult to collect, sort, recycle and ultimately reuse.

Plastic Energy, a global leader in chemical recycling, completed a capital raise of €145 million (US$166 million) from three separate investors: LetterOne, Axens and M&G. Plastic Energy is headquartered in the UK with two operational plastic-to-plastic chemical recycling plants in Spain, and several plants currently under construction in France and the Netherlands. The company uses its unique and patented technology through a thermal anaerobic conversion process to recycle end-of-life plastics otherwise destined for landfill, incineration or the environment.

Alpla, a global packaging solutions and recycling specialist, opened a new plant for HDPE plastic recycling in Toluca, Mexico. Meanwhile, the company announced it will double its annual regrind material production capacity to 30,000 tons from the second half of 2022. The plant investment totaled around 23 million euros and created approximately 70 new jobs.Alpla’s plastic recycling plant in Toluca, Mexico.

In brief: Recyclable solutions
Greiner Packaging equipped UK-based Nush Foods with its recyclable K3 cardboard-plastic cup with an in-mold label snap-on lid for the brand’s relaunched dairy-free cream cheese. “The lightweight cup and the snap-on lid are both made from the same PP material, and the cardboard outer layer can be easily removed to enable recycling,” explained Julie Eller, Greiner Packaging’s UK & Ireland sales and marketing manager. “The reverse of the removable cardboard wrap on the Nush dairy-free cream cheese cups is printable, so we are considering the best ways of using this benefit to tell more about our story to our loyal consumers,” added Andrea Wiltshire, Met Foods’ supply chain administrator.

Coveris equipped Demavic, a French pet food manufacturer, with mono-material, recyclable bags for its new range of therapeutic pet kibbles. The packaging manufacturer used its MonoFlexE film to address a new anti-waste law in France, aiming to eliminate waste and pollution from the design stage and transform production, distribution and consumption models from a linear to circular economy.

Milliken & Company, a leader in polymer additives and colorants, launched DeltaFlow Viscosity Modifiers specifically to help polypropylene recyclers. Recyclers can use the solid concentrate to increase the melt flow rate of recycled polypropylene for the extrusion and injection molding processes. Milliken offers DeltaFlow in free-flowing pellets, making the product easy to feed, safe to handle and dust-free.Greiner Packaging’s K3 cardboard-plastic cup for Nush Foods.

Avery Dennison introduced three white uncoated papers made entirely from recycled fibers. The material is designed for wine, spirits, food and beverage labels. The papers reportedly offer a competitive appearance and performance to conventional alternatives. They are also wet strength treated.

ProAmpac announced two independent advanced recycling firms have confirmed ProActive Recycle Ready Retort RT-3000 pouches meet the criteria for chemical recycling. “Advanced recycling will be a critical part of the world’s future recycling infrastructure as brands transition to packaging that supports the circular economy. ProAmpac has tested its RT-3000 offering in two separate advanced recycling processes to ensure the mono-material structure is truly a circular solution,” said Adam Grose, ProAmpac’s CCO.

Berry Global launched a range of packaging and product solutions for personal care. Highlights from the first suite include Boston Round bottles and Flip Top and Tube closures incorporating up to 100% post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic, refillable jars with up to 100% PCR content, a lighter weight mono-material lip care stick and refillable roll-on stick, and airless dispensers with lighter weight and mono-material construction, recycled content and refillable capabilities.Coveris’ recyclable bags for Demavic.

In brief: Compostable food boxes
Tri-Star Packaging introduced home compostable, recyclable food boxes. The kraft boxes are coated with Notpla Coating, a special lining made from seaweed, which replaces the plastic coating usually used on foodservice products. The coating does not require specific recycling pathways or specialized industrial composting equipment to degrade. Tri-Star Packaging says it takes less than six weeks for the solution to decompose in a home composting environment completely.

In brief: Acquisition
TC Transcontinental acquired H.S. Crocker, a manufacturer of die-cut lids for the food industry and labels for the pharmaceutical industry. Primarily serving North American customers, with approximately 150 employees, H.S. Crocker operates two facilities, in Huntley, Illinois, and Exton, Pennsylvania. For the 12 months ending July 31, 2021, the company’s consolidated sales were around US$50 million. “The integration of H.S. Crocker’s Huntley facility to our platform will broaden our packaging solutions portfolio, especially in the dairy, coffee lids as well as shelf-stable and chilled desserts markets,” commented Thomas Morin, TC Transcontinental Packaging’s President.

By Joshua Poole