Quinn received certification to manufacture food grade PET packaging made from 100% recycled material from the European Food Safety Authority in July 2019.
Virgin PET
Traditionally, PET food packaging was manufactured using a combination of virgin PET polymer and recycled PET material.
Virgin PET polymer was used in the outer layers of the packaging for food safety purposes, this meant food did not contact the recycled PET material.
Quinn Packaging recycled PET packaging eliminates the need for the layer of virgin polymer for food protection due to its PET extrusion system, Vacurema recycling from Erema.
This system allows the use of non-food grade recycled post-consumer PET material to make food grade PET sheet. Eliminating the need for virgin PET.
The Vacurema recycling system is integrated within Quinn Packaging’s extrusion lines producing 100% recycled food grade sheet in one process.
Richard Wild, sales manager, Quinn UK, said Orbital by Quinn is now commercially available and feedback from across the industry has been very positive, with a number of retailers and brands expressing a strong interest.
BRC Accredited
The product is manufactured at the company’s BRC (British Retail Consortium) Accredited production facility in Co Cavan, Ireland with the R&D process from concept to completion taking eight months.
“Our 100% recycled product has been launched to meet demand from retailers and consumers to offer the most sustainable packaging. Until now, all our packaging products contained a combination of virgin PET and recycled PET. With Orbital by Quinn you can have achieve 100% recycled material content,” he said.
“We have a responsibility to provide solutions to the food processing and retail industries which allows them to move to more sustainable options. It is the increasing demand for such solutions which has driven us to develop three innovative new products in the last year, all of which have improved environmental credentials, including Orbital by Quinn.”
Other products recently launched by Quinn include Detecta and Signum, food packaging designed to tackle some of the issues with the recyclability of plastic packaging and a move towards a circular economy.
