WRAP Testing Out Commercial Uses for Recycled Plastic

Agency announces agreement with several large companies to boost use of recycled PET plastics.

 

The Waste & Resources Action Programme is conducting a series of commercial trials to assess the use of recycled PET plastic in retail packaging. It is the first time that rPET will be used in such a large number of high profile, high volume product lines.

 

Coca-Cola Enterprises Ltd, Marks & Spencer and Boots are among the companies involved in the program.

 

Robert Pascoe, managing director of Closed Loop London, explained: “The trials will be the first of their kind in the UK, addressing consumer and industry perceptions, technical performance and cost implications alongside the actual application of recycled PET in packaging. We firmly believe that by using recycled PET in packaging and creating a strong local demand recovery rates will increase from below 10 percent as they currently stand to greater than 50 percent as is achieved in many other countries. The funding provided by WRAP will enable this coordinated trial to take place with key industry players on a larger scale than would otherwise have been possible. ”

 

More than 2,000 metric tons of recycled PET is expected to be used in the initial trials and each partner is planning to continue using the material after the trials have ended, providing the results are positive. The final conclusions will be publicly disseminated and the successful outcomes will be used to promote the wider adoption of recycled PET in retail packaging.

 

Two of the three trials involve food and beverage packaging. Adhering strictly to food contact regulations, these are designed to prove the safety and suitability of rPET, which is regularly used in food contact packaging in other countries but only to a very limited extent in the UK. 

 

Peter Skelton, WRAP’s materials development manager of plastic, said: “We are delighted to be working with such well known consumer names. Not only will we benefit from their vast expertise in packaging, but we will have a highly targeted and relevant set of results with which to encourage other retailers and branded manufacturers to use rPET.

 

“The project will also allow us to work more closely with the high volume suppliers of rPET to help to secure supply and consistent quality and to improve our understanding of the economics of the market.”

 

The project will be completed in March 2006 and the results made publicly available by early Summer 2006.

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