High-temperature sterilization is an important feature in many dairy categories and requires packaging to withstand temperatures of up to 120 degrees Celsius. The new Eco HotPro Pot range is based upon Faerch’s CPET technology, meeting these requirements whilst still being fully circular.
Eco HotPro Pots are made from up to 75% of recycled post-consumer content, which the company said does not compromise on food safety or any other functional property. After use, they can be recycled to new food grade products of the same quality in an endless number of life cycles.
Legacy material PP, which has so far been widely used for high-temperature sterilization in dairy applications, is by no means circular. Like PS, for food safety reasons, PP products need to be made from 100% virgin material. They can only be downcycled to non-food applications, contradicting the basic principles of a circular economy.
PP and PS are increasingly affected by implemented legislation across Europe to support the transition towards circularity. Like in other countries, PP will be impacted by the plastic packaging tax taking effect by April 2022 in the UK, as it cannot meet the threshold of a minimum of 30% recycled content in direct food contact applications.
With the new Eco HotPro Pot product family, customers can choose from a wide range of shapes, cut sizes and colors including white. Eco HotPro can also be combined with the Evolve by Faerch concept, where no extra colors are added to the recycled content the pots are made from. This creates varying material colors, reflecting the specific blend of recycled content a pot is made from and allowing consumers to recognize the circular nature of the packaging.
“We are seeing the key players in the dairy market across Europe taking their responsibility very seriously to move towards more sustainable packaging solutions. With the large volumes they place into the market and their demanding functional requirements, like high-temperature sterilisation, the transition towards circularity is not an easy task for dairies,” said Spencer Johnston, CEO of Faerch UK.
“We are proud that we can contribute by introducing our Eco HotPro Pot range allowing Dairies to switch to truly circular packaging solutions. Circularity in food packaging is not a distance vision for us, it is reality already today: We manufacture food containers from recycled post-consumer content and recycle them back into food grade material. We do this every day at industrial scale.”
The launch of the Eco HotPro product range is part of a wider product development program to drive the transition of food packaging towards circularity. Faerch has launched product ranges made from up to 100% post-consumer content, and the company said its portfolio will be extended in 2021 to additional applications.
Faerch said it is increasingly substituting rPET generated from bottles by post-consumer content recycled from food trays to make this resource pool accessible. The tray volumes Faerch have recycled in its integrated recycling facility in the Netherlands correspond to 25m rPET trays per month, and the numbers are increasing further.