Whether it’s yogurt cups, drink bottles, coffee capsules, or detergent containers, Greiner Packaging has stood for attractive and functional plastic packaging for decades. Since 2022, Greiner Packaging has not only been producing packaging but also the raw material for some of these solutions at its plant in Nova Gajdobra, Serbia. The r-PET flakes are partially used for their own products but are also sold to customers.
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The use of recycled materials is intended to protect the environment and positively impact climate change – after all, the raw material typically has the largest impact on the CO2e footprint of packaging. According to the expertise of Greiner Packaging’s specialists, approximately 50 to 80 percent of the footprint can be attributed to the material alone. To better understand the greenhouse potential – i.e., the extent to which a product or substance contributes to the greenhouse effect and thus to global warming – a recent external study (including third-party review) determined the “product carbon footprint” (PCF) of flake production. The positive result in brief: r-PET has a much lower footprint than virgin material.
“The raw material used has the greatest impact on the CO2e footprint of packaging – around 50 to 80 percent of the footprint is attributable to the material. By using r-PET flakes, we can significantly reduce the footprint of our packaging, making a substantial contribution to fighting climate change,” Diana Strasser, Global Expert Life-Cycle Assessment Circular Economy
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Production
But how are the flakes actually produced? What steps had to be examined for the study? The r-PET flakes are made from collected PET bottles. On-site, the PET bottles are first sorted automatically using near-infrared cameras (NIR), followed by a manual sorting process. During sorting, the bottles are categorized by color, and foreign polymers are removed. The bottles then undergo a wet grinding process, where they are reduced to the size of PET flakes. Afterward, the flakes are washed to remove adhesives and other residues. The flakes are automatically sorted again using NIR cameras by color and polymer type and are also checked multiple times for metals throughout the described process.
The result
The product carbon footprint calculated per kilogram of r-PET flakes is 0.43 CO2e*. This value is the result of an externally conducted study, which also underwent a critical third-party review. This value can be further improved in the coming months by reducing production waste and making the PET bottle collection process more efficient. The CO2e footprint of PET as virgin material is, on average, approximately 60% higher in Europe**. This clearly shows how significantly secondary material from mechanical recycling can contribute to reducing CO2e emissions and combating climate change.
* Energy recovery accounted for using the Circular Footprint Formula
** Based on Ecoinvent v.3.11
