Please activate JavaScript!
Please install Adobe Flash Player, click here for download

FBR March 2016

www.fbreporter.com FOOD & BEVERAGE REPORTER | MARCH 2016 | 31 industry to deliver better system-wide economic and environmental outcomes, while continuing to harness the benefits of plastic packaging. The New Plastics Economy outlined in the report envisages a new approach based on creating effective after-use pathways for plastics; drastically reducing leakage of plastics into natural systems, in particular oceans; and decoupling plastics from fossil feedstocks. Achieving such systemic change will require major collaboration efforts between all stakeholders across the global plastics value chain – consumer goods companies, plastic packaging producers and plastics manufacturers, businesses involved in collection, sorting and reprocessing, cities, policymakers and NGOs. The report proposes the creation of an independent co-ordinating body to set direction, establish common standards and systems, overcome fragmentation and foster innovation opportunities at scale. In line with the report’s recommendations, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation will establish an initiative to act as a cross-value-chain global dialogue mechanism and drive the shift towards a New Plastics Economy. The report’s findings are timely; new technologies are unlocking opportunities in material design, reprocessing and renewable sourcing; developing countries are investing in after-use infrastructure; and governments are increasingly considering – and implementing – policies around plastic packaging. The New Plastics Economy: Rethinking the future of plastics provides a fact-base and a vision to inform the choices that need to be made. Plastics are the workhorse material of the modern economy – with unbeaten properties. However they are also the ultimate single-use material. Growing volumes of end-of-use plastics are generating costs and destroying value to the industry. After-use plastics could - with circular economy thinking - be turned into valuable feedstock. Our research confirms that applying those circular principles could spark a major wave of innovation with benefits for the entire supply chain. - Dr. Martin R. Stuchtey, McKinsey Center for Business and Environment You can read the full report here: www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org oose the circular economy MPact’s rPETs get EU green-light Mpact’s R350-million PET recycling operation in Wadeville, Germiston, which produces recycled PET (rPET) plastic for food grade packaging, has announced that its recycling process complies with European Union (EU) Food Safety Authority specifications. Now fully operational under the name Mpact Polymers, this bottle-to-bottle grade operation forms part of Mpact’s mission to reduce the PET industry’s impact on the environment. Mpact says its recycled PET has been tested by the Fraunhofer Institute in Munich, Germany and found to be safe for use in the packaging of food and beverage products. This is good news in the recycling and bottling industry as the opening of this operation increases the amount of PET bottles collected for recycling by 29 000 tonnes a year, generating a new raw material directly from what was previously considered waste - a saving of about 180 000 cubic metres of landfill space each year. Further, through PET collection and recovery, the operation will also help to create entrepreneurial income opportunities. “The PET recycling process used by Mpact Polymers transforms used PET bottles into resin that meets the needs of the most demanding food and beverage packaging applications,” says John Hunt, Managing Director at Mpact Recycling. “This ensures that the material can be re-used to make the same bottles from which it came, thereby closing the recycling loop. “Our rPET product will be known as Savuka - which means ‘revival’.” According to Industry body PETCO, total PET consumption in South Africa is around 198 000 tonnes per annum of which 68% is consumed in the beverage industry for bottle manufacture; in 2015 half of post-consumer PET bottles were collected. Contact: Mpact Recycling 011 538 8603 PET bottles collected for recycling by 29000 tonnes a year, previously considered waste - a saving of about 180000 cubic South Africa is around 198000 tonnes per annum of which 68% 0115388603

Pages Overview