Logo supplied by Tetra Pak
Tetra Pak has become the first food and beverage packaging supplier to earn Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB) Advanced Products certification for recycled material. Tetra Pak is integrating certified recycled polymers into the caps, tops, and/or coatings of its carton packaging.
RSB’s Advanced Products Standard permits the mixing of RSB-certified material with virgin fossil material. The mass of “attributed recycled polymers” in the resulting plastic is tracked throughout Tetra Pak’s supply chain and verified by a third-party auditor.
Tetra Pak collaborated with global petrochemical manufacturer INEOS to create the first batch of attributed recycled polyethylene (PE). INEOS used an advanced recycling process from Plastic Energy to convert waste plastic into high-quality polymers. The resulting material purportedly features the same characteristics as virgin plastic.
2. A disconnect exists between post-consumer packaging and recycled content demand.
The challenge will be made greater by the fact that commitments to use recycled content in packaging exceed currently available supply, and what supply is available is largely used for non-packaging applications like fiber, pipe, and other durable goods.
Meanwhile, even as we have insufficient recycled materials to meet goals, materials like polypropylene and PET thermoforms are at risk of being dropped from municipal recycling programs due to lack of necessary infrastructure. To enable brands to meet their goals, we need investments to increase the supply of recycled materials and ensure that valuable materials are not being discarded.
Photo supplied by the Sustainable Packaging Coalition To advance circularity, we need to support recycling and optimize the use of recycled materials in packaging. Here’s how we can make this more manageable.
Companies are setting aggressive goals around the use of recycled materials in their packaging, but they have a long way to go and a short time to meet them. Recycled material certification can help by offering assurance of the authenticity of materials, new ways of tracking material flows, and investment mechanisms that will advance the use of recycled materials in packaging and other applications.
Here are four good reasons to consider recycled material certifications: