Circular packaging economy: Industry actors highlight reusable innovations

24 Apr 2024 --- A major challenge for future life on our planet is the rapidly increasing volumes of plastic waste, making the importance of reusable packaging “enormous,” according to Peter Moertl, press relations representative at Krones.

Krones wants to contribute to solving the plastic waste problem with measures such as material-saving packaging design and recycling post-consumer plastics. “For the circular economy to work, returned PET must be recycled to a high standard and reused as packaging,” Moertl tells Packaging Insights. 

The company offers options supporting a sustainable material cycle, including material-saving container design, low-energy container production and recycling used plastics, for example, with the MetaPure recycling systems for PET and polyolefins. 

“It is precisely the very good recyclability that should be taken advantage of. After all, it always makes more sense to recycle existing material in its original application area than to downgrade,” asserts Moertl. 

A bright future for reusables?
Innova Market Insights data indicates that F&B packaging with reusable claims has surged with an average annual growth rate of 18% between 2019–2023. Sauces & seasonings was the top category for reusable packaging in 2023, finds the global market researcher.

Earlier this month, at the packaging trade show Empack in Gorinchem, the Netherlands, Marcel Keuenhof, sustainable packaging expert at Planet Reuse, highlighted that reusable packaging is gaining momentum across the EU.

LitePac Top packaging solution requires little material, consists entirely of renewable raw materials and can be recycled.Meanwhile, Moertl stresses that over the next few years, many major customers will significantly increase the proportion of recycled PET (rPET) in their bottles — in some cases to over 50%.

“Beverage bottlers are in a more comfortable situation than some other industries. There are already many solutions available for reusable packaging or to implement a closed cycle,” he says. 

Moertl explains that customer needs have changed significantly in recent times, particularly regarding sustainability and digitalization. “This is partly due to the challenges our customers are facing: Skills shortages, climate change, insecure energy supplies, rising commodity prices and much more.” 

“Both digitalization and sustainability answer these challenges: The labor shortage can be counteracted with more automation. With the most sustainable systems possible, you can reduce your carbon footprint and at the same time produce in a resource- and energy-efficient manner.” 

Reusable packaging applications
The packaging industry has seen increasing demand for fiber-based solutions, replacing alternative materials with paper.

Matti Rantanen, general director at the European Paper Packaging Alliance, tells Packaging Insights, that paper packaging, while renewable and recyclable, is not technically meant for reuse, especially when it comes to food packaging where hygiene and food safety are paramount.

“However, what is indeed reused in paper packaging is the high-quality fiber that is collected, sorted and recycled at the very high rate of 82.5% in 2022,” he says.

Rantanen highlights that paper packaging is precisely designed from its origin “to prevent the spread of food-borne illnesses by protecting the food contained in the packaging from external contamination and cross-contamination, while reusable options are less efficient in maintaining stringent food safety standards as it can be seen in hospitals where paper packaging is usually the best choice.”

Meanwhile, Moertl says that when developing sustainable packaging solutions, it is important to recognize and exploit the potential of the respective application.

“We always follow the principle: Reduce, Recycle, Reuse.”The packaging industry has seen increasing demand for fiber-based solutions.

“This means that the packaging solution must minimize the use of raw materials without sacrificing processability or convenience. The raw materials used should not be downcycled but fed into the recycling cycle so that the material can be used again in production in the next step. With MetaPure, we have a solution in our portfolio.”

Moertl says that this principle also works well for secondary packaging. 

“With LitePac Top, we have developed a packaging solution that is suitable for PET and cans, requires little material, consists entirely of renewable raw materials and can be recycled. LitePac Top has now arrived on the market — the Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company in Austria has been processing its 1.5-litre PET bottles in this packaging since the beginning of September 2023.”

Injection molding technology news
Moertl highlights injection molding technology as one of Krones’ latest portfolio additions.

“In the first quarter, we acquired the injection molding machine manufacturer Netstal. This acquisition puts us in a position to offer a solution for every step in the closed cycle.” 

He continues that the R&D team at Krones is constantly working on new ideas, products and solutions. “We want to offer solutions that go beyond tomorrow.”

“That is why we have also defined key topics in this target vision that influence our product development: Sustainability, system solutions and digitalization. One of these projects, for example, is the ‘Krones lines of the future,’ which we intend to present at Drinktec 2025 in Munich, Germany.”

“But the added value does not only relate to new machines. It is important to us that new and further resource-saving developments can be retrofitted, meaning that customers can install them in existing machines and systems.”

By Natalie Schwertheim