Executive General Manager Pact Group Eric Kjestrup said “We are thankful for the support we have received from the Waste Minimisation Fund as it will enable Pact Group to produce an extensive range of 100% rPET food grade packaging products, including meat trays, bakery trays, deli containers, food containers, produce containers and beverage bottles”.
The existing infrastructure for recycling New Zealand’s most widely used plastic polymers, PET, processes it into recycled PET (rPET) flake, this flake is not food contact approved it must be sandwiched between layers of virgin material. This effectively means packaging can only comprise a proportion of recycled content.
“This funding will contribute to Pact’s investment in state-of-the-art infrastructure that will thoroughly decontaminate the rPET flakes into material that can be used in the production of 100% recycled, food-contact approved packaging.
“Across the food and beverage sector, there is an increasing shift away from materials that have limited or no options for recycling, such as polystyrene, and coloured PET. Investing in this infrastructure with the help of the WMF will provide our customers with a recycled substitute to the current virgin PET range with the same level of functionality,” said Kjestrup.
