TotalEnergies partners with Berry to use recycled plastic in food packaging

Berry Global Group Inc., based in Evansville, Indiana, and TotalEnergies, Paris, have announced a collaboration to make food packaging more circular and divert waste from landfills. TotalEnergies will supply Berry with certified circular polymers obtained through advanced recycling of postconsumer plastic that is otherwise hard to recycle, allowing Berry to use more recycled plastic in its food and beverage packaging as well as health care products.

TotalEnergies portfolio of polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene is available as certified material from advanced recycling through the processing of circular feedstock in Antwerp’s steam cracker. The company says its certified circular polymers exhibit virgin-like properties suitable for high-end, demanding applications. Feedstock from hard-to-recycle plastic waste will be produced in TotalEnergies’ advanced recycling plant starting in 2023 on a future zero-crude platform in Grandpuits, France, the company says.

“This collaboration with our longtime partner Berry Global demonstrates the willingness of the supply chain to make packaging more circular and sustainable, especially for demanding food contact applications where no other circularity solution exists,” says Valerie Goff, senior vice president, polymers, at TotalEnergies, adding that the partnership paves the way for the company’s ambition to produce 30 percent recycled and renewable polymers by 2030.

Berry says it plans to broaden access to valuable, ISCC Plus-certified advanced recycled materials to European-based customers in collaboration with TotalEnergies, whose certified circular polymers follow the ISCC Plus certification scheme that secures the chain of custody and traceability along the value chain from feedstock to final product.

“Through our collaborations with suppliers like TotalEnergies, we aim to provide customers with premier access to these in-demand sustainable resins like those we see with advanced recycling technologies serving the European region,” says Jean-Marc Galvez, president of consumer packaging international at Berry. “Combined with Berry’s expertise in designing for circularity and breadth in manufacturing capabilities, this announcement demonstrates commitment to our long-term sustainability strategy.”