Beyond bottle-to-bottle: Greiner works on PET tray-to-tray recycling

Greiner Packaging and Rauch Fruchtsäfte jointly worked to introduce beverage tray made of 70% recycled PET from yellow bags.

In the project, rPET flakes are produced from post-consumer material by means of thorough pre- and post-sorting, followed by shredding and washing. From these flakes, a PET film with 70% recycled material is subsequently extruded, which is then thermoformed into rPET trays by Greiner Packaging business unit Greiner Assistec.

The beverage trays made with recycled material are in no way inferior to those made of virgin material, in terms of quality.

rPET flakes from yellow bags are used to produce beverage trays.

Extending to tray-to-tray

The project sees the possibility to establish alternative PET value flows. As plastic industry nowadays focuses on recycling PET bottles, the bottle-to-bottle flow is already well-established.

Yet, there is great potential for recycling other PET packaging from the yellow bag, which is not extensively applied. The future aim is to establish corresponding recycling streams on a large scale in the future.

"For us, creating beverage trays from r-PET material that does not come from the bottle flow is a great opportunity: On the one hand, it means we are focusing on a sustainable product. On the other hand, we are promoting a tray-to-tray cycle,” stated Hanno Mandl, purchasing manager at Rauch Fruchtsäfte.

Greiner Packaging announced the acquisition of a Serbian rPET flakes recycler in September 2022, which it is now operates under the name Greiner Recycling.

Peter Fessl, Director Operations Recycling at Greiner Packaging, emphasized the potential of rPET in sustainable future of packaging industry and the company’s clear goal to drive recycling streams away from bottles.