THE European Food Safety Authority has approved the decontamination process used by Greiner Packaging UK & Ireland to recycle post-consumer PET into food contact materials.
Recycled plastic materials and articles can only be placed on the market if the recycled plastic is from an authorised recycling process, and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)’s opinion on its safety is required.
The input material for Greiner Packaging’s 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.
Recycled flake is cleaned and washed, however still requires further decontamination. The decontamination unit installed at Greiner Packaging’s factory in Dungannon is said to enable the removal of impurities and creates a food-safe material. This is integrated with a greater material feed system which is directly linked to a new extrusion line. The firm added that the equipment and process arrangement gives complete flexibility with the capacity to utilise recycled input materials, virgin or a combination of both, giving ‘total flexibility’ to meet customer requirements.
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.”
Julie Eller, UK sales director at Greiner Packaging, said, “This is a significant and hugely important step in our journey to use increasing amounts of recycled material in our food-grade packaging. The EFSA panel has concluded that the recycling process we use is safe for the manufacturing of food-grade packaging.
“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.
“Since Greiner Packaging first introduced its K3® cardboard-plastic innovation in 2007, there has been continuous investment at our UK manufacturing facility. But, alongside investing to create new packaging solutions, there has been a constant focus on investing in improving our environmental sustainability performance and pursuing our goal to achieve a circular economy.”
