Mannok Pack, one of the UK and Ireland’s leading thermoformed food packaging manufacturers, ran the trials at their County Cavan facility, producing a range of different products from 500g Dairy Spread Tubs and Lids through Injection Moulding with In-Mould label to 500g Dairy Spread Tub with Lid through conventional sheet extrusion and thermoforming.
The finished packs showed excellent visual and processing characteristics with only minor but acceptable product variations between the 30% rPP pack and the Virgin PP pack.
As Mark McKenna, Mannok’s general manager commented, the packs made with the recycled PP material looked great and demonstrated the huge potential for this project. McKenna feels confident the project is poised to help their industry move towards closing the loop on food-grade PP.
Helene Roberts, Robinson PLC’s CEO concurs saying: “We were delighted with the results of these initial trials using the food-grade rPP material from Nextloopp that produced very similar aesthetics and performance to our current virgin-based products and little disruption to the manufacturing line.”
Professor Edward Kosior, founder of Nextek Ltd and Nextloopp explains that he is delighted with these first trial results that demonstrate the huge potential in closing the loop on one of the most prolific food-grade polymers and is very grateful for all the diligent preparation and support in these production trials.
As Nextloopp finalises the dossiers for its application to EFSA and USFDA for food-grade accreditation, they are also now working in conjunction with industry bodies to advise on new design guidelines for Food-Grade Circular Recycling based on their findings from these trials.
