INNOVATION | CAPS AND CLOSURES


Right: Rieke’s Linfa dispensing pump is made from up to 50% post-consumer recycled plastics


Châteaubriant plant with recycled content (using mass balance methodology). Marco Marchetti, VP Packaging Materials, Sales & Distribution Solutions at Tetra Pak, says: “As a signatory of the Ellen MacArthur New Plastics Economy Global Commitment, Tetra Pak has pledged to incorporate a minimum of 10% recycled plastic content on average across carton packages sold in Europe by 2025. Having listened to Elle & Vire’s demands and activated our ecosys- tem of innovative partners, such as Ineos and RSB, who are helping us to move away from virgin, fossil-based resources, we are now one step closer to reaching this goal.” TriMas Packaging’s caps and closures busi- nesses have been active in the area of sustainabil- ity, as shown in their new products. Affaba & Ferrari, which was acquired by TriMas in 2020, has developed tethered caps for still water, carbonated soft drinks (CSD) and juices at its base in Borgo San Giovanni, Italy. These feature a new screw and flip concept with a self-locking hinge. The two-piece closure is designed for bottles with the lightweight 26/22 neck finish, which leads to a 36% reduction in cap/neck finish weight. The closure is injection moulded in PP (shell) and HDPE (inner spout). TriMas says Affaba & Ferrari “has decades of


Right: Aptar is testing recycled PP material from PureCycle Technologies in caps


expertise and extensive experience in this field, regardless of EU requirements”. Howard Manning, VP Closure Product Division, says: “Our customers need to be aware of the possible measures they need to adopt and investments they need to make at an early stage, in order to implement against the regulatory backdrop.” Rieke Packaging, the TriMas specialist in dispens- ing closures, has been adopting post-consumer recycled plastics in its products. It says: “We under- stand that our customers have ambitious sustainable commitments such as ‘30% of post-consumer recycled content target across all plastic packaging by 2025’ or ‘Use 100% of re-usable, recyclable or compostable packag- ing by 2030’.” Rieke says it has “taken a huge step into applying PCR to our dispensing pumps”. One example is the company’s new Linfa dispensing pump which is made from up to 50% PCR, which it says reduces the carbon footprint, while maintaining optimal performance and keeps the packaged product’s integrity with its no metal contact design. Rieke has also integrated up to 50%


G E 24 INJECTION WORLD | April 2022 : A P www.injectionworld.com


PCR in its new Push Pull 01 closure, which is intended for packaging dishwasher detergents or other cleaning products. Another leading dispenser manufacturer, Aptar,


is also exploring the use of recycled material. The group says it “believes that the packaging industry must move beyond the ‘make, use, dispose’ behav- iours of the past and actively work toward a circular economy. By circulating used plastic and packaging, we keep it in the economy and out of the environ- ment. Therefore, Aptar works to reduce the quantity of plastic needed, use recycled materials, partner with recyclers, and develop reuse models.” Since 2019, Aptar has been involved in a


collaboration project with PureCycle Technologies in the US, which is using a patented purification technology from P&G to develop a PP recycling process. The partners are working to determine the right material combination to create hinged closures for food, beverage, and cosmetics applications. Aptar says that, recently, it converted prototype material from the PureCycle Feedstock Evaluation Unit into multiple colours of hinged closures with performances similar to conventional plastics. Aptar will have access to commercial produc-


tion from PureCycle’s first site as well as from its future facilities that it may build outside the US. In January, major plastics


packaging group Berry Global announced its new B Circular


Range of products which it is developing as part of its commit- ment to increase circular materials to 30% by the year 2030. The B


IMAGE: RIEKE


I


R


M A


T


A


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58