Klöckner Pentaplast (kp) claims it has become the first food packaging business to receive RecyClass’ Traceability Certification with a module focused on closed loop for its recycled PET (rPET) at its production site in Pravia, Spain.
The company recently launched what it states is the market’s first food packaging trays comprising 100% rPET, derived exclusively from trays. It adds that until this point, packaging trays were manufactured using increasing proportions of recovered PET material, but the 100% rPET trays are apparently the first to be composed entirely of recycled tray material and are fully transparent.
Cecilia Guardado, marketing director of Trays at kp, commented: “This achievement demonstrates absolute transparency when it comes to the origin of the rPET flake from food trays we use for our kp Tray2Tray initiative. We are fully focused on reducing waste across the entire packaging value chain by developing clear PET thermoformed trays from recycled PET trays, that are also fully recyclable.”
Samuel Pardo, senior innovation manager at kp, added: “When we launched this closed loop initiative in 2020, 3% of our post-consumer recycled material was from kp Tray2Tray. By 2022, that increased to 9.1% and 11.4% in 2023 - translating to more than 900 million post-consumer trays recovered and used. We aim to continuously increase at pace thanks to collaboration with the whole value chain.”
Earlier in the year, Moy Park added Klöckner Pentaplast’s kp Elite, a modified atmosphere packaging tray made entirely of rPET, to its packaging range, in an effort to reduce its plastic consumption by 50 tonnes and transition completely into mono-material solutions. The rPET tray is envisioned as an end-to-end circular solution and seeks to unlock greater processing and packing efficiency.
More recently, Graphic Packaging partnered with UK supermarket Morrisons to create a photographic print pressed board tray for the retailer’s private label steak portfolio. The pack is anticipated to eliminate 250 tonnes of plastic per year from the retailer’s supply chain.
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