Recycled PET packaging is traditionally required to be produced from a combination of recycled PET and virgin PET material. The outer layers of the packaging are, normally speaking, made from virgin PET, to ensure the contents make no contact with the recycled material, for food safety purposes.
Ireland-based Quinn Packaging has now developed a product which it calls Orbital, that uses 100% recycled PET material and is fully suitable for food packaging applications. The packaging is produced using the patented Vacurema recycling system from Erema, which has been fully integrated with the company’s extrusion lines. This system allows the use of non-food grade recycled post-consumer PET material to make food-grade PET sheet. All functions, including decontamination, are performed in a single efficient process that produces 100% recycled food-grade sheet with stable viscosity.
Quinn Packaging launched Orbital to meet demand from retailers and consumers seeking more sustainable packaging solutions. It is the third product with improved environmental credentials, launched by the company in the last year, said UK sales manager Richard Wild. “It follows the recent launches of Detecta by Quinn and Signum by Quinn, two food packaging solutions which are both designed to tackle some of the issues with the recyclability of plastic packaging,” he clarified.
Quinn received certification to manufacture food-grade PET packaging made from 100% recycled material from the European Food Safety Authority in July 2019. Eliminating the requirement for virgin PET opened the door for the development of the company’s first food-grade PET packaging material made from 100% recycled material.