NEWS Sustainable ryegrass
Two Welsh universities have partnered with Waitrose to deliver a research project aimed at using Welsh ryegrass to create sustainable products for the food packaging and cosmetics industries.
The Sustainable Ryegrass Products (STARS) project will be led by the BioComposites Centre at Bangor University and the Institute of Biological
Environmental and Rural Sciences at Aberystwyth University and informed by industry partners including Waitrose.
Funding of almost £600,000 from the Welsh Government’s Academic Expertise for Business (A4B) programme is supporting the project, which will see a biorefining process used to isolate and extract sugars and other components from ryegrass and convert them into low carbon products. These will include biofuels, platform chemicals and pulp-moulded packaging products for retail applications such as food packaging. The project will collaborate with six industrial partners representing all links in the SME supply chain -
from biomass cultivation and harvesting to processing and commercial end-use - and will demonstrate the production of these materials at a pilot scale. To inform the process, Waitrose will research public engagement in the bioeconomy and the adoption of green products.
Minister for Business, Enterprise, Technology and Science, Edwina Hart AM, said, “It’s good to see two Welsh institutions working with such a wide range of partner businesses, both indigenous and multi- national, on a novel project with commercial potential. Dr Adam Charlton, of Bangor University’s Biocomposites Centre, welcomed the Welsh Government’s support for the project, saying, “Activating a green industry in this way is a global aim and we hope to demonstrate an integrated approach to land utilisation. We don’t want to displace existing agricultural activity, but aim to provide farmers with an opportunity to diversify and find alternative applications for surplus grass produced in the UK."
Continuum sort 250 million
Nampak
bottles Continuum Recycling, the pioneering recycled-PET joint venture between Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) and ECO Plastics, has celebrated sorting a quarter of a billion bottles. The landmark comes nine months after the £15 million facility was opened by then Waste Minister, Lord Taylor of Holbeach. Located on the site of ECO Plastics’ existing facility in Hemswell, Continuum is now responsible for processing more than 50 per cent of the UK’s bottle grade rPET plastic. The success of the facility allowed CCE to meet its commitment to use 25 per cent rPET in all its bottles by the end of 2012, an industry first. The plant also played a key part in Coca-Cola’s efforts to recycle all of the plastic bottles used during the Olympics and Paralympics, with some 15 million collected and returned to shelves as part of 63 million new bottles during a process that lasted as little as six weeks.
New senior development
Two new appointments at LINPAC Packaging
LINPAC Packaging, Europe’s leading multi-material packaging manufacturer, has announced two new appointments to support its move into the prepared and chilled food packaging sector and the launch of its Freshform business. Rajesh Tandon and Amy Bates have joined the company as new business development managers and will be responsible for looking after customers across the prepared
and chilled food sector including processors, packers and retailers. Their appointments coincide with a recent investment by LINPAC Packaging in new thermoforming capacity for the fast turnaround and flexible supply of new designs for the prepared foods market in the UK.
manager Kevin Snelling has joined packaging technology and development consultancy Your Packaging Partner as a packaging development manager, a key role within the team. Kevin joins Your Packaging Partner, a company within the Sun Branding Solutions group , from Coldwater Seafood, where he was senior packaging technologist. This is Kevin’s second stint at Your Packaging Partner. During his career, Kevin has also worked at Greencore Cakes and Desserts developing packaging for brands such as Sainsbury’s, ASDA and more.
create world's lightest four-pint bottle
Nampak Plastics has created the world’s lightest ever four- pint high density polyethylene (HDPE) bottle. Weighing in at 32g, the bottle represents a 20 per cent material saving on the standard four-pint version found in most supermarkets today (which weighs 40g). It is currently undergoing trials with a number of Nampak’s customers. This breakthrough comes not long after Nampak’s Infini bottle claimed a coveted World Star prize earlier this year and the Best Dairy Packaging Innovation at the Global Dairy Congress in 2012. The Infini bottle, which is stocked in a number of major retailers including Marks & Spencer, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s, is already the lightest and strongest bottle on the market. If the company were to move its entire annual output of two billion bottles to the new lighter Infini, 15,000 tonnes of resin would be saved each year. Eric Collins, Managing
Director of Nampak Plastics, said: “Since its launch in 2012, Infini has been responsible for a paradigm shift in milk packaging, using considerably less material and more recycled plastic than has ever been achieved before. Feedback on Infini from milk processors and retailers has been extremely positive."
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