Borealis, one of the world’s leading providers of advanced and circular polyolefin solutions and a European market leader in base chemicals and fertilizers, announces that it has acquired a minority stake in Bockatech Limited, a UK-based growth-stage green tech business and inventor of the innovative EcoCore ® manufacturing technology platform for sustainable packaging. The investment deepens the existing partnership between the two companies and underscores Borealis’ commitment to plastics circularity. The move entails joint market and material development in the long term as well as the scaling of the EcoCore platform itself. The aim is to enable a greater number of global customers, value chain partners, and supply chain players to benefit from a broader range of lighter weight foam-based applications, primarily in the packaging sector.

True to the EverMinds™ ambition: synergistic effects to drive plastics circularity

Borealis and Bockatech are leading the transition to plastics circularity, building on co-operation which began in 2016 to develop foam injection moulding solutions for reusable and recyclable packaging. The partnership has already chalked up success with the 2020 “Close the Loop” pilot project at Borealis sites in Belgium. Here, over a million single-use drinking cups were replaced with 30,000 EcoCore lightweight cups, which can be collected and washed for reuse before ultimately being recycled. Thousands of these more environmentally-friendly cups also made an appearance at the recent COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, where they were used for publicly catered events. The conference venue ordered 70,000 reusable cups for use at this and future events.

By intensifying their collaboration, Borealis and Bockatech are accelerating the development of more circular packaging solutions for converters and brand owners in order to meet demand for packaging formats with lower environmental footprints. Bockatech EcoCore uses optimised polyolefin resins supplied by Borealis to create mouldings that have skin-foam-skin walls with high strength-to-weight ratios and excellent thermal insulation. Because only minimal investment in new equipment is required to produce safe and reliable mouldings using the EcoCore technology, converters can readily move into more sustainable packaging formats for a wide range of sectors.

While collaboration will continue to focus on reusable coffee cups, additional applications for technology licensing are foreseen, including more sustainable reusable packaging types and lightweight single-use solutions. Applications in non-packaging product ranges are also envisioned, as the EcoCore technology is further advanced and scaled up.

One aim of deeper co-operation is to produce success stories which exemplify the Borealis circular cascade model, in which design for eco-efficiency, reuse, and design for recycling are key elements integrated in a complementary and cascading way to achieve plastics circularity. The EcoCore technology platform aligns with the Borealis circular cascade model on all three levels. “We are proud and pleased to deepen our partnership with Bockatech,” says Lucrèce Foufopoulos, Borealis Executive Vice President Polyolefins, Circular Economy Solutions and Innovation & Technology. “This is proof positive of our EverMinds approach and commitment to collaboration and innovation to bring about plastics circularity. We look forward to enabling an exciting range of lighter weight and easily recyclable solutions that facilitate the transition from single-use to reuse. This is the right path towards more sustainable living.”

“Working together with Borealis, we’ve already been able to develop packaging for several leading foodservice and fast-moving consumer goods brands in North America and Europe. This new investment will help us advance our EcoCore technology even further and increase the number of applications,” says Henri Gaskjenn, Bockatech CEO. “We share with Borealis a long-term vision of sustainability and, like them, aim to be leaders in the new plastics economy. Their material expertise combined with our manufacturing technology is creating more sustainable solutions with better performance for converters, brands, and consumers alike.”

EMSUR, through its Technology Innovation Centre INNOTECH, presents ECOEM-Sleeves, a new range of sustainable shrink sleeve solutions for bottled carbonated drinks, water, juice or drinkable yogurts.

The beverage industry knows all about the advantages of bottle sleeves as they provide a key element of product differentiation on shelves, display strategic brand messages or nutrition information on the product’s contents and enhance consumer added-value perception through innovative designs, materials and printing.

In the current processes the sleeves are removed from the bottles at the washing stage to avoid contamination of the PET flakes that are later used in the recycling flow Post-consumer.

Within our ECOEM-Sleeves range we provide different types of sustainable solutions, including our ECOEM-FULL PET Sleeve, an outstanding, innovative shrink sleeve solution based on a combination of films and washable inks designed to simplify the recycling process by avoiding any type of residues or contamination.

This new product line, based on eco-design principles, features a combination of PET-based films and washable inks which can be mixed and recycled with PET bottles without any clumping of residues or interruption in the drying and decontamination process.

In addition, this product can be manufactured with post-consumer recycled content and has APR certification for washable inks, preventing discolouration of the flakes from the recycled PET bottles.

Another of the notable products in this new family is EMFULL, a polyolefin-based sleeve option whose floatability properties allow the sleeve to be separated directly from the bottle during the washing phase of the recycling process

This product range also features other solutions and different materials such as PETG, with available post-consumer recycled content and different types of finishes such as high gloss or matt, transparent and other differentiating elements such as holographic effects, glow-in-the-dark pigments, gold and silver inks, etc.

Any other material can be used in combination with these bottles thanks to the option of micro-perforation, which means that the bottles are also recyclable with the aid of consumer interaction.

It is worth mentioning that EMSUR has been authorised by the DPG-System set up in the German market to fulfil the mandatory deposit on one-way drinks packaging, in accordance with the requirements of the German Packaging Ordinance so as to promote circularity and recyclability.

At COEXPAN & EMSUR we continue working on developments that respond to our customers’ needs and to consumer and market trends, as well as driving forward our commitment to sustainability.

Luke Bray, HAVI’s senior manager, Quality Systems & Compliance, said that Detpak is a long-established leading supplier and its focus on providing McDonald’s restaurants with the best possible packaging products was a step above the other suppliers in 2021.

Detpak’s partnership with HAVI was forged over four decades ago when the business first started supplying packaging products to McDonald’s Australia. It has since grown to a global supply agreement to help service the world’s largest QSR, with several products manufactured locally.

“Over the years, Detpak has worked closely with HAVI and McDonalds to implement specialised packaging solutions, underpinned by extensive root cause analysis on quality control and open, honest lines of communication between the parties. This true partnership is built on a foundation of trust and quality, and a relentless pursuit of our customer’s needs,” said Bray.

“The number of touch points in our business that have worked to achieve this recognition runs into the hundreds,” said Conrad Groenewald, CEO of Detpak parent company Detmold Group.

“This award speaks to our relentless pursuit of quality across our business, and the passion and persistence of our people. We are honoured to have been recognised in this way.”

“HAVI and McDonalds are incredibly valuable partners of ours, and we look forward to building on this successful partnership for many years to come,” he added.

Set to drive a significant increase in the state’s PET recycling capacity, the plant will be built in an industrial precinct on Horsburgh Drive, with construction planned to start in early 2022 and finish in 2023.

It is expected to create more than 100 local jobs during the construction phase and 45 permanent roles once it’s complete. The capital expenditure for the project will be around $50 million. 

“We know from our research that Australian consumers are increasingly demanding packaging that is recycled and recyclable, and this new PET recycling facility in Victoria ticks both of those boxes,” said Sanjay Dayal, Pact Group CEO and managing director. 

“Pact Group is delighted to have been able to drive a cross-industry solution for sustainable beverage bottles, and we will continue to work with industry partners and government to create a strong local circular economy. 

“This facility is part of our ongoing investment in new state-of-the-art facilities to recycle plastic waste and manufacture sustainable packaging all across Australia.” 

The new facility will be the second PET recycling plant to be built by the four-party joint venture, following the construction of a similar plant in Albury-Wodonga, which will be fully operational next month. 

Each facility will be capable of processing the equivalent of around one billion plastic bottles – collected via Container Deposit Schemes and kerbside recycling each year. 

All material collected will be converted into more than 20,000 tonnes of high-quality recycled PET bottles and food packaging by each facility, which will use state-of-the-art sorting, washing, decontamination and extrusion technology. 

“We are constructing this facility to help create a truly circular economy in Victoria and beyond,” said Robert Iervasi, Asahi Beverages Group CEO.

“Our consumers can now have increased confidence that when they dispose of their plastic water or soft drink bottle, it will be recycled instead of going to landfill. It’s not every day that drinks companies announce they’re building a new recycling plant, but we want to help create meaningful change.” 

While competitors in the beverage market, CCEP and Asahi Beverages have come to the table with Pact and Cleanaway to deliver a substantial increase in the amount of PET plastic recycled and reused in Australia.

“We are proud of CCEP’s continued investment in Australia’s circular economy. Our vision is for our bottles to be part of a closed loop where they are used, collected and given another life,” said Peter West, CCEP vice-president and general manager – Australia, Pacific and Indonesia.

“This plant will work to complete this loop, lessen the national rPET shortage, and create new jobs for Victorian workers. It is truly an exciting milestone in our sustainability ambitions.”

The cross-industry joint venture draws on the expertise of each member. Cleanaway will provide PET through its collection and sorting network, Pact will provide technical and packaging expertise, and Asahi Beverages, CCEP and Pact will buy the rPET from the facilty to use in their products.

”This recycling facility is a huge step towards Victoria creating its own domestic circular economy,” said Mark Schubert, Cleanaway CEO and managing director.

“Cleanaway is excited to be part of providing customers access to high circularity infrastructure as we work towards making a sustainable future possible together.”

Federal Minister for the Environment Sussan Ley and Victorian Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate change Lily D’Ambrosio, announced $6 million towards the project from a total pool of $36.5 million in joint funding projects under the Recycling Modernisation Fund (RMF) and the Recycling Victoria Infrastructure Fund.

“The Morrison government’s $190 million contribution to the RMF was facilitating unprecedented investment in recycling infrastructure, with the combined Commonwealth, state, territory and industry co-investment model on track to reach around $800 million,” Ley said. 

“The co-investment model is exceeding all expectation and showing that materials can be recycled and remanufactured to create new products and new jobs, while helping our environment.”

D’Ambroio said the joint venture will receive $6 million towards its new PET recycling facility, which will boost local jobs and increase the state’s recycling capacity. 

“Funding and facilitating projects like this will help Victoria reach our goal of diverting 80 per cent of waste sent to landfill by 2030, improving our circular economy and tackling climate change,” she continued.

"Game-changing" investment

In addition to announcement of the new facility, Pact Group also recently received $20 million in funding from the federal government’s Modern Manufacturing Initiative for Recycling and Clean Energy Manufacturing projects to support its investments in world-leading technology, which will increase the amount of recycled materials in locally made plastic packaging. 

The funding will support investment of approximately $76 million in new equipment and facility upgrades at 15 of Pact’s operations in NSW, Victoria, Queensland and WA, which are to be completed by mid-2024.

The investments will be made across four areas of Pact’s manufacturing operations:

• Upgrades to national dairy packaging equipment at facilities in NSW, Victoria, Queensland, and WA to enable up to 50 per cent recycled content for HDPE milk bottles;
• Installation of world-leading technology at facilities in NSW and Victoria to boost production capability for PET drink bottles with 100 per cent recycled content;
• Upgrades to Sulo mobile garbage bin manufacturing facilities in NSW and Victoria to increase production capacity to support the rollout of “four bin” waste management initiatives and increase the use of recycled content to 80 per cent from the current average of 30 per cent; and
• New equipment at Pact’s industrial packaging manufacturing plants in NSW, Victoria and Queensland to upgrade production facilities to enable increased recycled content in the manufacture of plastic paint pails and plastic cubes used in agricultural chemical and industrial applications.

Happier Beauty, a British eco-friendly dental brand is developing a refillable toothpaste dispenser with biodegradable refill capsules after receiving a Smart Innovate grant of £150,000 ($202,925). 
 
The brand is on a mission to tackle the tons of plastic waste produced by regular toothpaste pumps and tubes by developing a new toothpaste dispenser that eliminates single-use plastic tubes or pumps.

About the Dispenser
The innovative toothpaste dispenser will be made of aluminum and 50% recycled plastic, and has been designed to be used over and over again. The refill capsules are biodegradable meaning the new dispenser and refill capsules are completely zero-waste.
 
Together, the offering provides an alternative to standard toothpaste tubes that are notoriously difficult to recycle and result in 1.5 billion plastic toothpaste tubes ending up in landfill every year. The brand wants to create a more circular solution to the climate crisis.

Biodegradable Refill Capsules
The new toothpaste dispenser will allow consumers to refill using biodegradable capsules. The refill capsules will be sent out to customers as a subscription, along with the reusable dispenser in their first subscription. Customers will be able to choose the frequency of their subscription.
 
The design will be elegant and sleek, and the dispenser comes in four colors: mint, pink, peach and white.
 
Founder of Happier Beauty, Faye Wilson, said, “It is becoming clear that recycling will not save us from the climate crisis, and so Happier Beauty wanted to take it one step further by creating a truly circular refillable and reusable solution.
 
“We are so excited to be the world’s first toothpaste company to bring a refillable toothpaste dispenser to market. Refills are becoming more popular across food and beauty so why not dental care? Toothpaste is a product we all use twice a day but innovation in this market has been pretty slow up until now.”