Packaging Solutions Green Solutions
Together with its partners, Greiner Packaging is taking yet another step towards a circular economy: in future, Rauch brand beverages will also be presented in supermarkets in trays made of 70% pcr r-PET material.
Material taken from yellow bags is used for the beverage trays. In the course of a project, it was proven that r-PET flakes can be produced from post consumer material by means of thorough pre and post sorting followed by shredding and washing. From these flakes, a PET film (70% recycled material) is subsequently extruded, which is then thermoformed into r-PET trays by the Greiner Packaging business unit Greiner Assistec. In terms of quality, the recycled trays are in no way inferior to beverage trays made of traditional materials.
The r-PET flakes are produced from input materials other than PET beverage bottles, such as cups, tubs, and trays. The project thus shows that it is possible to establish alternative PET value flows. After all, to produce packaging from recycled PET, the plastics industry today mainly uses r-PET flakes obtained by recycling PET bottles. This ‘bottle flow’ is already well established. The potential for recycling other PET packaging from the yellow bag, on the other hand, is not yet being exploited to any great extent.
‘For us, creating beverage trays from r-PET material that does not come from the bottle flow is a great opportunity: on the one hand, it means we are focusing on a sustainable product. On the other hand, we are promoting a tray to tray cycle. As a beverage manufacturer, we are of course particularly keen to ensure that high quality r-PET from the bottle flow is also available for the production of new r-PET bottles and that alternative forms of packaging are used for the manufacture of other products,’ said Hanno Mandl, purchasing manager at Rauch Fruchtsäfte.
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