The Recyclate Initiative of Werner & Mertz GmbH was honored with the German Packaging Award for the development of flip-top closures made of 100 percent recycled polypropylene (rPP) from the Yellow Bag. The innovative caps competing in the New Material category convinced the 15-member jury.
The award was accepted at a ceremony in Humboldt-Box in Berlin by Immo Sander, head of Packaging Development at Werner & Mertz GmbH, along with Michael Heyde and Ines Schwarz of The Green Dot – Duales System Deutschland GmbH, Steffen Meinel and Stefan Andera of HEINZ PLASTICS Böhm GmbH, and Heike Schick, Clariant Plastics & Coatings (Deutschland) GmbH. Partners in the Recyclate Initiative, Werner & Mertz, The Green Dot, HEINZ PLASTICS and Clariant, developed the hinged cap made of post-consumer recyclates.
The jury praised the Initiative, which, it said "succeeded in producing a polypropylene re-granulate from household packaging waste that fulfils the very high requirements for flip-top closures necessary in the injection molding process and in their application. This innovation has led to the development of another plastic material for the technical recycling of packaging materials."
"We are proud that we have been honored again this year with the German Packaging Award for one of our new developments," said Mr. Sander about the shared achievement of the Recyclate Initiative. "In producing caps from polypropylene recyclates, which were obtained exclusively from the Yellow Bag, we have gone one step further in the development of sustainable packaging. In the future we will develop and implement more sustainability concepts over our large network."
Dr. Heyde, who is head of Product and Process Development at the Green Dot, added: "Through the use of polypropylene recyclates from the Green Dot for the caps, we were able to put another type of plastic into the closed loop. With the Recyclate Initiative, we show what is possible today in plastic recycling."
Managing Director Steffen Meinel of HEINZ PLASTICS also was happy about the Initiative's collaboration. "Together, with the use of recyclates, we were able to develop and manufacture a proven sustainable plastic product and put it into series production."
"The project work supports the development in the production of masterbatches with sustainable pigmentation," said Ms. Schick of Technical Application Service at Clariant. "We are very pleased with the successful cooperation in the production of sustainable caps."
Behind the innovative caps is about nine months of intense joint development work by Werner & Mertz and its project partners. The recycled polypropylene material is provided by The Green Dot DSD and the caps are manufactured by HEINZ PLASTICS in Langenau in Upper Franconia. The green color of the cap comes from a “cradle-to-cradle” masterbatch developed by Clariant and specially adapted for the recyclates.
The current success confirms the efficiency of the Initiative's close cooperation. FROSCH lemon cleaner in a 750 ml bottle is the first product with the new cap to be placed in the retail market. Werner & Mertz will gradually equip other FROSCH brand products with the sustainable cap. Plans also call for Cradle to Cradle™ certification.
Every year the German Packaging Institute (dvi) presents the German Packaging Award in 10 categories to honor innovative and creative packaging ideas. This year's awards ceremony took place in the Humboldt-Box in front of the Berlin City Palace.
