A combination of firms from across the flexible food packaging supply chain have worked together to launch new snack packaging that contains 50% recycled plastic and meets stringent food contact requirements.
The new packaging was launched in the UK and Ireland for Sunbites, PepsiCo’s well-known snack brand, and is made by recycling plastic waste into food grade packaging material.
This is done using an advanced recycling process, a complementary approach to mechanical recycling, which enables the recycled materials to satisfy the demanding EU regulatory requirements for applications such as food contact packaging, contact sensitive and medical devices.
GreenDot ensured the procurement and supply of post-consumer plastic packaging waste, which was converted into TACOIL (pyrolysis oil) using Plastic Energy’s technology.
INEOS Olefins & Polymers Europe used this pyrolysis oil as an alternative to traditional fossil feedstock to first produce recycled propylene, before turning this into virgin-quality recycled polypropylene resin at its plant in Lavera, France.
IRPLAST uses the new resin to turn existing plastic packaging designs into new packaging films that contain 50% of post-consumer recycled materials and meet the food contact performance requirements.
Amcor transformed these films into printed packaging that delivers the same technical performance for PepsiCo. Using these new polypropylene films, PepsiCo launched the Sunbites packaging in the UK.
Archana Jagannathan, chief sustainability officer PepsiCo Europe, said: “At PepsiCo, we are proud to work with our industry partners towards more sustainable packaging solutions. We are excited about the Sunbites new packaging in the UK, and we look forward to learning from this pilot market and expanding it across more countries in the near future. Collaboration is key to progressing on our ambition to eliminate virgin fossil-based plastic in all our crisp and chip packaging in Europe by the end of 2030.”
Gerald Rebitzer, sustainability director at Amcor, said: “We are building a future where flexible packaging is part of the circular economy. Together with PepsiCo, we enhanced the material technologies on PepsiCo’s new crisp packet to make it easier to recycle. And we are beginning to integrate renewable and recycled content into PepsiCo’s packaging. To meet the demands of our clients like PepsiCo, we encourage more partners upstream to invest in the supply chains of these new materials.”
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