Insight Focus
Sustainability drives legislation, innovation and procurement. rPET demand grows, but supply faces challenges despite recycling advances. Laws like EPR and PPWR push for sustainable packaging.
It won’t come as any surprise to know that sustainability rules supreme—and rightly so. As the driving force in legislation, innovation and procurement, the topics that touch on sustainability are not going anywhere.
So, what are some of the biggest innovations to watch out for?
Brands Push rPET as Demand Surges
First up, increasing use of rPET. As recycling technologies continue to advance, including chemical recycling, rPET is becoming more accessible and more cost-effective. In theory, anyway.
Volumes are still a challenge for those without a reliable supply, and even those with one are not enjoying totally smooth sailing. As global brands target 100% rPET, demand is growing. Can supply keep pace?
Source: Mckinsey and Co
Designers Rethink Packaging for Recycling
This leads us onto advanced recycling technologies. There is a huge hunger for innovative methods that can help deliver the supply demanded for rPET. Noises about enzymatic recycling, for example—where used PET is broken down into its original monomers to create infinite recycling without any loss of quality—is just one such future possibility.
There’s also the logical solution of not using as much material in the first place. Often referred to as lightweighting, the design choices that mean less material is needed for the same functionality have to be a good idea.
This goes hand in hand with the move towards mono-material designs. PET packaging is moving towards mono-material designs, avoiding mixed materials or coatings that complicate recycling processes, to support recyclability and take more responsibility for the circularity of products and their packaging.
Material advancements that are tickling the PET industry as the weather warms up include new and exciting uses of biobased materials like sugarcane and cellulose, with all manner of start-ups and established experts using their advantages to create packaging materials that perform.
Sugarcane
New Legislation
It won’t surprise you to know that legislation is still coming in strong this spring. The Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) kicks in, as well as the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), both of which will keep driving all the above toward greater innovation.
