Reducing plastics carbon footprint

Last month’s Budget announcement on packaging targets caused quite a stir and split opinion in the plastics packaging sector. Some are very much in favour of the 57% recycling target, while others believe it to be overly ambitious and unachievable without additional measures, including considerable investment. The new target has placed the recycling performance and recyclability of plastic packaging firmly under the spotlight.

When it comes to milk packaging, the traditional design for HDPE handled milk bottles has remained largely unchanged for over 15 years. However, with both industry and consumers demanding innovation, greater convenience and improved environmental credentials, plastic milk bottle manufacturers are under increasing pressure to deliver on both product design and environmental performance.

Recycled content

Around three billion HDPE milk bottles are used in the UK every year, with the 4 pint plastic milk bottle being the consumers number one choice of milk packaging. HDPE bottles are 100% recyclable a message that appears to be getting through to UK consumers, who helped the UK reach an all-time high recycling rate of 76% for plastic milk bottles in 2011 the highest level of recycling and recovery in the UK for any type of packaging.

This much increased recycling rate has enabled Nampak to achieve up to 15% rHPDE (recycled HDPE) in our milk bottle manufacturing process. We are also on track to increase this in line with the targets set in the Dairy Roadmap of 30% rHDPE by 2015 and 50% by 2020. Blow moulding processing trials are already underway to determine the feasibility of including 30% and 50% rHDPE in our milk bottles.

Key to achieving further increases in our recyclate inclusion is the supply of sufficient volume of material that meets the quality standards required for food grade plastic packaging. This, however, will require significant investment in reprocessing facilities which many in the industry are already calling for.

Lightweighting

The Budget focused on packaging recycling targets, but I believe the government should be placing more emphasis on the wider issue of plastic packagings carbon footprint and accepting, as many already do, the vital role that packaging has to play in reducing food waste and its associated carbon impact. We, along with other plastics packaging producers, are already achieving success in reducing our carbon footprint per tonne without the carrot or stick approach from government. For us, its just about maintaining our competitive advantage.

Recycling does have an important role to play in reducing plastic packagings carbon footprint, but reductions are also achievable through the innovative lightweighting of products. By making subtle changes to the design of plastic packaging, significant weight savings can be made, together with associated materials and transportation savings.

A good example of this is our recently launched Infini HDPE milk bottle. Designed specifically to be lightweighted, Infini has significant advantages over the standard bottle design and offers the opportunity to lightweight bottles by up to 25%. From an environmental perspective, the benefits are undeniable, with a minimum of 10,000 tonnes of material saved per year, and a carbon saving of 23,000 tonnes annually.

The industry should be applauded for the achievements it has made in plastic milk bottle recycling as recently as 2002 there was virtually no recovery of this packaging waste stream. Its now time to explore the other ways in which we can reduce the environmental impact of this essential packaging material and not get too caught up in the recycling targets alone.