While post consumer recycled resin seems to be the leading option to accomplish packaging sustainability in the industry, there are several considerations to make when sourcing PCR material:
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There are four main plastics used in packaging: polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Currently, high density polyethylene (HDPE) and PET recycling are more common than others. The infrastructure is built to support the collection of these materials and many CPGs lead initiatives to educate consumers to recycle. PP is readily recyclable but needs more infrastructure and education around the material. Finally, PS is also recyclable as it is extremely tolerant to &#;re-melting,&#; but its collection presents difficulties due to its form factor.
Certain plastics are like oil and water&#;they don&#;t mix well. The contamination caused by their mixing, or worse yet, the addition of other factors (such as food, dirt, or other contaminants) can render the resins very difficult to reuse. The makeup of the post consumer resins can be a big obstacle in the industry&#;s endeavor to achieve a truly circular economy, which is a critical piece for packaging sustainability.
In addition, based on your company&#;s performance requirements of the product, the mixing of the materials can lead to further complications in achieving goals. Almost 60% of European plastics converting companies find it &#;hard&#; or &#;very hard&#; to reuse plastic scrap due to contamination, according to a European Plastics Converters Association study.
Then how can you ensure 100% purity for packaging materials?
The first step is to establish a set of recycled material goals for your product. Then, you need to partner with your supplier to evaluate and understand their sources and supply chain. They must have the appropriate quality controls and tests in place to ensure the material supplied meets your product&#;s specifications.
Therefore, it is imperative that you have full visibility into your supplier ecosystem and a strong understanding of how the post-consumer recycled plastic was sourced, processed and produced.
Not every type of recycled resin works for every use case or complies with applicable regulations.
In the United States, the FDA has guidelines for the use of recycled plastics in food packaging. Specifically, they have three concerns that:
Europe has more stringent guidelines. Under a regulation set over a decade ago, only &#;food-contact materials and articles that contain recycled plastic obtained from an authorized recycling process&#; may be used in the EU.
It is very likely that in the future more industry standards will be developed, and perhaps also government regulation, to ensure the material really is what it should be. Brands once again can partner with governments worldwide to help shape regulation and drive post consumer recycled content forward.
Over the long term, this area will become more like medicine or food&#;when we go to a grocery or drug store, we hardly ever think about whether the medicine or food is &#;good&#; or &#;safe.&#; We rely on the system in the background which ensures that it is.
Finding a steady source of high-quality post consumer recycled plastic is a difficult endeavor today. Consumers are not yet recycling enough plastic waste worldwide&#;which drastically impacts the supply. The reasons vary from geographically different regulations to the additional cost customers must occasionally incur to recycle. Furthermore, while many understand the importance of recycling, many are also confused on how to properly do it.
With such high demand for recycled materials, brands and packaging integrators must treat the sourcing of these resins as a partnership with their supplier, rather than a transactional exchange. Unlike sourcing virgin material, brands, converters and suppliers must work as a team and make the proper investments to build a viable infrastructure. Sometimes, that means launching community initiatives.
PepsiCo, for example, recognizes the importance of bringing all stakeholders together. To support the development of packaging sustainability, they launched PepsiCo Recycling, an initiative to improve plastics recycling infrastructure and raise awareness on the issue worldwide. With their partnerships through the program, they&#;ve provided recycling access to 33 million households across 700 communities in the U.S. since , collecting more than 115 million pounds of plastic bottle and recyclables.
These types of partnerships and investments can help you reach your sustainable packaging goals while making a big difference for the environment. Watch Jabil's documentary: The Sustainable Packaging Revolution for a better understanding of how integrators like Jabil, KW Plastics and Danimer Scientific are bringing innovative packaging solutions to the market.
While long-term partnerships and investments into the larger ecosystem will help to ensure a steady supply of post-consumer recycled resins, end-of-life must be addressed at the very beginning with product design. As it stands currently, approximately 30 percent of plastic packaging will never be reused or recycled without fundamental redesign or innovation, according to the World Economic Forum.
The current recycling infrastructure needs an overhaul, but brands can design their packages to optimize recyclability while working within the boundaries of the current infrastructure. This can be accomplished in different ways, such as making components out of a single polymer family, tethering a cap to a bottle or by minimizing how the packaging is assembled so it can be easily separated when necessary.
Innovations in recent years have enabled plastics to be much more sustainable than in the past, and using post consumer recycled resin is a major contributor to that effort.
Post consumer recycled resin (PCR resin) is a material made from recycled plastic, such as water and beverage bottles and other packaging. It offers a more sustainable source for making packaging films, containers, sheets, and many of the products that would otherwise be developed with virgin plastic resin. PCR resins meet requirements and regulations for food, pharmaceutical, medical, electronics, and general retail packaging, making them suitable for nearly any packaging need.
PCR resin enables manufacturers to make the same high-quality products at competitive prices with less environmental impact. PCR resins can include multiple types of recycled materials, and can meet or exceed your needs in size, color, finish, and performance while meeting all necessary functional and regulatory requirements. Using PCR resin:
Lowers the amount of plastic being sent to landfills (4,800 16-ounce plastic bottles equal about a cubic yard of landfill space)
Shrinks your carbon footprint (traditional plastics production produces nearly 900 million tons of carbon dioxide each year)
Reduces the need to create new plastics from non-renewable petroleum products
Limits negative effects of plastics on the environment
Lowers amount of energy needed to produce new plastics (recycling a pound of PET plastic instead of making new can save up to 12,000 BTUs)
Satisfies environmentally conscious customers
Promotes your compliance with industry regulations
When plastics are recycled, they need to be properly sorted by type and thoroughly cleaned before being processed into new plastic flakes, pellets, or powder for reuse as PCR resin. Occasionally, despite using materials sourced from reputable recyclers, there are some impurities in the PCR resin, which can show up as specks or discolored spots in the finished products. While acquiring good quality PCR resin can present some difficulties, taking advantage of recyclable plastics is a crucial step in protecting the environment.
At Integrated Packaging Films, we believe in the importance of using sustainable materials and practices while maintaining the highest quality packaging materials and superior customer service. The PCR resins we use for custom extrusion projects include:
APET (Amorphous Polyethylene Terephthalate):
A safe, crystal-clear, lightweight polyester resin. Most of the PET plastic you see is APET except some PET formulations for higher temperature uses. &#;Amorphous&#; indicates the alignment of the polymers.
RPET (Recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate):
This is polyester PET plastic but made of 100% recycled materials and sourced from used, fully cleaned PET packaging.
PETG (Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol-Modified):
A softer, slightly more flexible variety of PET plastic. It&#;s a fully recyclable and food-safe plastic that&#;s excellent for making clear sheets and is well suited to die cutting and printing for signs and displays.
PP (Polypropylene):
Clear, durable, fully recyclable, and chemically resistant, PP is popular for shrink films and blow-molded, rigid packaging.
Are you interested in learning more about recycled abs plastic granules for sale? Contact us today to secure an expert consultation!
With our state-of-the-art equipment, we offer the combination of material choice, color, size, and finish to match your specific requirements and provide regulatory and industrial compliance. We can use PCR resin for:
Packaging films
Sheets, including print-grade cut sheets
Custom plastic extrusion: for rigid film, sheets, and custom parts and products
Packaging materials, including heavy gauge thermoformable primary packaging materials
Custom plastic coating: including denesting and antistatic coatings
With decades of experience and a commitment to quick turnaround, on-time delivery, and superior customer satisfaction, we look forward to discussing your plastic film and sheet needs. Contact us today to learn more.
Many of the world&#;s leading brands have announced commitments to incorporate more post-consumer resin (PCR) in their packaging within the next 5-10 years. This sentiment is echoed by companies in a variety of industries around the world. Post-consumer resin is one solution to curbing the growing plastic pollution problem and decreasing the depletion of natural resources.
To meet the rising demand for post-consumer resin, the return and recycling of specific types of used, empty plastic packaging by consumers is key. One of the ways Mauser Packaging Solutions addresses the increased need for post-consumer resin and supports the transformation from a linear to a circular packaging industry is through our integrated life cycle management program, which includes collection, reconditioning, recycling and manufacturing of products from PCR materials.
So, what is post-consumer resin, how is it made, and what are the benefits?
What is Post-Consumer Resin (PCR)?
According to the International Organization for Standardization&#;s (ISO) &#;Plastics Vocabulary&#; list, post-consumer or post-use material, is defined as &#;material generated by the end-users of products, that has fulfilled its intended purpose or can no longer be used (including material returned from within the distribution chain).&#; This differs from post-industrial, or pre-consumer material which is defined as &#;material diverted during a manufacturing process&#;.
Post-consumer resin (PCR) includes consumer packaging items such as plastic film, bottles, milk jugs, buckets, and also industrial packaging items such as IBC totes and poly drums. These items can be reprocessed into recycled plastic that&#;s used to make new products.
How is PCR manufactured at Mauser Packaging Solutions?
When an IBC or plastic drum reaches the end of its usable life and is no longer suitable for reconditioning, the first step in the recycling process is collection through the Mauser Packaging Solutions collection program. Empty containers and used plastic components are then sorted, shredded, ground, washed, dried and repelletized as high-quality post-consumer resin in compliance to ISO : standards. We call this in-house generated PCR &#;RecoleneTM.&#;
RecoleneTM, our premium recycled resin, is used to manufacture our own components and packaging, such as the Infinity Series of products. It offers the same benefits of reusability and recyclability as virgin resin and comparable technical performance. In alone, Mauser Packaging Solutions generated more than 51,000 metric tons of post-consumer resin from empty IBCs and plastic drums returned through our collection program.
What are the benefits using PCR?
Post-consumer resin offers a lower carbon footprint compared to virgin materials. Use of PCR diverts waste from landfills, decreases the consumption of virgin raw materials, and reduces emissions while promoting the circular economy.
How can your company contribute?
With such high demand for recycled materials, collaboration among the supply chain with the packaging manufacturer, filler and end user is extremely important to establish a true circular economy.
Are you thinking about incorporating Post-Consumer Recycled (PCR) resins into your flexible film products? The world is demanding that we address the issue of plastic waste (can add an impactful reference here such as &#;According to Greenpeace, the volume of the packaging material used by the e-commerce sector was 9.4 million tons in , and it is expected to reach 41.3 million tons by . Also, about 850,000 metric ton of plastic waste was produced by the package-delivery sector in &#;).
If you make flexible polyethylene films, an obvious way to reduce plastic waste is to use PCR resin in your products. This might feel like a challenge for a number of reasons.
Film production is not forgiving, and waste plastics can be inconsistent and contain too many contaminates.
There are not many options in the market for PCR de signed for film conversion in terms of melt index and cleanliness
PE films are notoriously competitive in terms of price and performance
Before you embark on this worthy journey, we want you to know more about PCR
Post-consumer recycled is defined as having served its purpose; after the product&#;s intended use in the market, it is collected, processed, cleaned and repelletized into PCR resin. When plastic is transformed into a product, then lost in manufacturing due to change over, overruns, and mistakes, it can be reprocessed back into a resin format. However, since it never served its intended use by cus tomers, it is considered Post-industrial recycled resin.
PIR can typically be used back in the original process and is less likely to end up in a landfill. Repro is short for &#;Reprocessed&#;. This is a plasticmade mostly from post-industrial parts that are ground into small format and then pelletized. The transformation of the plastic into a part has made the resin unusable back in the original product.
And finally, wide spec resin is not a recycled product. It is a virgin resin that has not been trans formed in any way. Wide spec generally consists of resin that is out of specification or has a perfor mance range wider than the intended specification.
Reducing plastic waste in our environment requires the use of materials that are most likely to be disposed in landfills and do so on a continuous and substantial way. Use of wide spec does not reduce plastic waste at all and PIR waste streams can often be used back into the source product &#; making PIR simply good manufacturing practice. Repro consumption keeps plastic waste out of landfills; however, supply is often variable and uncertain. This leaves PCR as the best solution when your goal is to formulate a product that incorporates recycle. Predictable supply and manageable consistency gives you the abil ity and the confidence to make a recycle based product that can then be marketed for its positive environmental impact.
The melt index, melt flow ratio, and density are basic properties that should be communicated on every lot of PCR. We offer some observations that will make your experience with PCR align better with expectations. While PCR rheology curves may look similar to virgin resins, it is important to un derstand the shear thinning behavior and melt strength of the resin during processing. For instance, if LDPE is present in a LLDPE based PCR, the resin will process as if it has a higher MFI than indicat ed. Care should also be given to selecting a PCR based on density values only. Mineral fillers are of ten present which can make the density will appear to be higher than the actual base polymer density. Ash is a good property to evaluate along with density.
Melt Flow Ratio is a good indicator for processability &#; a higher number indicates it will be easier to process. Also, it is important to align the source of PCR to your final product and processing needs &#; if your process requires a melt index of 2 or above, it is ideal to find a PCR to suit your needs rather than try to work with a fractional melt that will make processing difficult and frustrating. Resin suppli ers have a role to play here as well, as PCR can be provided as a melt compounded blend with virgin resin to alleviate issues such as MI mismatch.
Since PCR is often used as a blend component, it is important to understand how the PCR properties will affect your overall perfor mance. The first step in using a PCR blend is to compare the phys ical property performance of PCR to a virgin resin. Make sure you choose the right resin to conduct a fair comparison &#; try to align the MI and density of the PCR to your comparative virgin resin. Physical property retention can be quite good provided the PCR is high qual ity and free of contamination. If performance falls short, consider changing to a higher performance virgin resin in the blend to over come the slight reduction in performance.
Exploring how much PCR to use in your product design is key in applications development and should be done on a case by case basis. The level of PCR content often depends on cleanliness (gels or impurities), physical property retention, and desired aesthet ics. For cleanliness and gel level, ask your supplier about their cleaning steps and their melt filtration capabilities. For physical property retention, matching density is important and if this is not possible consider what can be done to offset the resulting change in performance. With regards to aesthetics, our advice is to embrace the ugly! PCR is not likely to look as good as virgin, even if the utmost care is taken in its production. Let the different aesthetic start telling the story for the consumer to understand that PCR is being used in your product design &#; the sustainability messaging is a key component to driving growth in the circu lar economy!
You should ask your PCR supplier if any additives have been added, such as slip or blocking agents. These additives can have a negative impact on your product performance. Anti-blocking agents can interfere with tackiness required for stretch films for instance. There are beneficial additives that you also want to ask about. Antioxidants may improve PCR stability and film performance. If you think the PCR needs stabilization, collaborate with your resin supplier.
Most plastic manufacturers can attest that PCR often has a different odor compared to virgin plastic. Good PCR suppliers address odor early in the recycling process. It is critical to remove paper labels and cellulosic/organic contamination in the wash step to prevent particles from charring during the ex trusion process. Devolatilization and deodorizing additives are secondary activities that can improve perceived odors. Ask your supplier if any of these steps are included in their process.
Finally, if you have a special criterion such as absence declarations and food contact, work with your supplier to address these needs. The FDA has a specific process defined to achieve a letter of Non Objection (LNO), which is one criterion for food contact. PCR should not be used for food contact applica-tions unless it has explicit statements indicating that it is safe to do so &#; an LNO is only one piece of the entire picture.