Packaging Innovations 2026 live: PakTech showcases PCR, HDPE handle portfolio
12 Feb 2026 | PakTech
PakTech’s international sales manager Keenan Hoar-Perez is showcasing the company's handles for cans, jars, and bottles, made from fully PCR recycled HDPE. Hoar-Perez tells us the recyclable designs minimize material use, cut shipping costs, improve pallet efficiency, and reduce consumer prices.
Hi, from Packaging Innovations 2026 Birmingham.
I'm speaking to Keenan, the international sales manager at Pech.
Hi, thanks for being with us.
It's a pleasure.
Thank you.
What are you presenting at the show this year?
Sure, so we have a variety of solutions that we're presenting right now.
So we have handles for cans, we have handles for for jars for.
We're glass, we're luma, we're BET, we're really trying to showcase at the show right here is our capability.
So whatever the package might be, whatever the medium might be for that material, we have a handle at least to design for that package.
So we have twin clips, for example, we have UnipA handles a variety of different, different products.
We want to design around the product and not have the product.
Makes sense.
And are there any particular trends that you're responding to with these handles?
The biggest trend right now, is at the forefront of a lot of consumers' minds is sustainability, you know, the eco-conscious consumer.
Everything that we do to confront that is.
Everything is made out of 100% recycled material.
So it's 100% PCR, so post-consumer recycled material.
It's also HDB number 2, so it's fully recyclable and it's fully recyclable.
Especially when we're looking at the EU and the UK, we have PPWR, we have EPR guidelines, so it's not just a marketing message anymore, but the material has to match the message, and that's what we're doing.
We lead with sustainability.
We ensure that we're ahead of those guidelines to support our consumer, our own customers, but also their consumers know that they're doing something good when they take the product.
Makes sense.
And beyond regulations, are there any other trends you're supporting that Paktech is interested in as?
Another thing that I'd say would be important is minimizing the amount of material, so not just being the most sustainable material out there, but having the lightest weight.
For us it also ties into marketing that this is the primary package for the consumer.
It's what we truly believe, so we want to showcase that, but it also helps from a variety of measures, so we're able to reduce the cost of shipping so we can stack more handles on the pallet, and it's lighter weight for the consumer which also.
The cost for our clients.
So if we minimize the packaging, we can attack a lot of different s.
Makes sense.
And is there a particular challenge that you think packaging companies are facing right now that they should be paying more attention to?
Yeah, yeah, I think one in particular is.
There's an expectation that that we can fit within the packaging guidelines with the recycling MRFs and PRFs and their recycling processes that they need to conform to our standards to our materials because our materials are already on market.
But instead I think that our industry really needs to focus on is we need to design for the recycling systems.
We need to design something that's going to be accepted, and not expect that that they're going to be able to meet us out.
So for example, we had an issue with our black plastics a couple of years back where the recycling systems had an issue picking up the black plastic in the sorting process.
So what do we do?
We design for those recycling processes.
We introduced a new coloring, and now all our black plastic has an NIR colorant.
So when it's going through a sorting process, it can be picked up by those cameras and sorted and reprocessed efficient.
Makes sense.
And is there anything else that you would like to highlight?
No, we're, we're excited to be here.
We're meeting a lot of new customers.
We're having an expanded presence in the EU and the UK right now.
So here being in Birmingham, it's really exciting because we're able to show off our products looking a bit more innovative.
We've been doing this for over 35 years now in the United States.
Really excited to be here and promote, you know, sustainable materials.
