Greiner Packaging UK & Ireland, at its factory in Dungannon, Northern Ireland, has been granted EFSA approval for the decontamination process it uses to recycle post‐consumer PET into food contact materials.
Recycled plastic materials may only be used for food contact applications and articles if an opinion on their safety has been obtained from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
The fact that the EFSA panel has concluded that the recycling process used by the company is safe for the manufacturing of food-grade packaging is a major step for Greiner.
“We have invested over £3,700,000 in our new PET decontamination and extrusion line to enable the use of more recycled materials in our market-leading packaging ranges. This is the latest step in our continued commitment to innovate, increase capacity and reduce our carbon footprint,” said UK Sales Director Julie Eller.
The EFSA Panel on Food Contact Materials, Enzymes and Processing Aids (CEP) assessed the safety of Greiner Packaging’s recycling process, using the Starlinger deCON technology, and concluded: “The recycled PET obtained from this process is not considered to be of safety concern, when used at up to 100% for the manufacture of materials and articles for contact with all types of foodstuffs for long‐term storage at room temperature, with or without hotfill.”
The input material for the recycling process consists of hot-washed and dried flakes obtained from PET containers, such as bottles, previously used for food packaging, from post-consumer collection systems (kerbside, deposit systems and mixed-waste collection). Currently, up to 5% may originate from non-food applications.
“This EFSA approved recycling method allows Greiner Packaging to integrate the supply chain, and we are well on our way to being able to include at least 30% recycled content in all products,” said Sustainability and Innovation Manager Rachel Sheldon. “Rather than buying-in PET sheet and selling off any waste, we can now create recycled PET (r-PET) sheet on-site, and re-use excess material.
“Currently, most of the recycled PET supply available in the UK originates from plastic bottles, a very clean source. The new integrated line enables ‘tray-to-tray’ recycling – meaning that we can process material from a wider variety of sources and utilise a lighter grade of recyclate.”
The company is also looking at other recycled materials, specifically PP. As Sheldon pointed out,
until last year, only extruded was produced at Dungannon. Today, the site extrudes r-PET, and recycled polypropylene (r-PP), as well.
“While r-PET has become commonplace for chilled products such as salads, PP has remained the main material for dairy products and our aim is to offer increasing r-PP content, even though food-grade PP recyclate is currently in short supply in the UK. Despite this, pilot quantities of r-PP for product trials are already available.”
“While a lot of talk in the industry has recently only been about r-PET, we are already in a position to favour either r-PET or r-PP, and can produce the majority of our products using either material. Across Europe, we are already making products with r-PP, and this is set to increase.”
Greiner Packaging recently joined Recoup, the official RecyClass auditor for rigid plastic packaging in the UK, and is one of the founding members of the UK Plastics Pact.
Sheldon: “Gaining EFSA approval for our recycling process represents another significant step in our journey to helping our customers to add value, while also delivering on our circular economy commitments.”