German company Equipolymers, part of the international Equate Group, with clients such as Coca Cola and Nestlé, has just launched a new food-grade polymer with the highest percentage of recycled matter ever.
Viridis 25, the new food-grade polymer (PET) uses up to 25 percent chemically recycled PET as raw material. This reduces the need for virgin PET with benefits for business, the environment and the community. This EQP advancement moves the world closer to closing the circular economy loop, helping brand owners meet the guidelines of the European Plastics Strategy while driving increased plastics recycling.
Pet, the most widely used raw material in the world
PET is the material from which water and soft drink bottles are made. The production of Viridis 25 is based on a chemical recycling process of PET polymers from post-consumer flakes. With the introduction of this new material, more than 3 percent of the available recyclable PET in the European Union can be intercepted: more than 60 thousand of the 2 million tons per year collected.
From the end of 2019, the new polymer will be on the market.
The production process
Viridis 25 is the result of multiple attempts and refinements.
- In 2009 EQP launched Viridis 10, a PET grade containing up to 10 percent recycled PET.
- Viridis 10 begins to be used in the beverage industry
- In 2016, EQP and Coca-Cola began collaborating with Viridis 25. The process has been successfully validated and is being transferred to industrial scale.
Bruce Eliott, managing director for plastic packaging at Coca-Cola, explains:
“In accordance with the European Plastics Strategy, Viridis 25 contributes to our global strategy of a waste-free world by increasing the amount of recycled material in PET bottles.”
Some facts to know
- EQUIPOLYMERS is a company dedicated to the production and marketing of polyethylene terephthalate (PET ). It is a wholly owned subsidiary of EQUATE Petrochemical Company (EQUATE), a global manufacturer of petrochemical products and the world’s second largest producer of ethylene glycol (EG ) .
- Total post-consumer PET collection in the EU is about 2,000 Ktons (2 million tons) per year (2016 data).
- The rPET flakes reach 1.3 million tons/year of this amount.
- Viridis 25 complies with European food contact plastic regulations and can be used in beverage production and thermoforming applications.
- It can be used in beverage bottle production as well as in thermoforming applications.
- Viridis 25 will require> 3% of the total RPET available in Europe.
- EQUIPOLYMERS’ current production capacity of PET is about 350,000 tons/year: about 10 percent of the total PET capacity in Europe.
