Tag Archives: food packaging

Alpla to Produce Milk Bottles with 50% Recycled Content for Arla Foods

Arla Foods has appointed leading plastic packaging company, Alpla, to manufacture bottles on site at its new one billion-litre dairy in Aylesbury, and support Arla’s aim for the dairy to be the most environmentally advanced in the world.

Arla Foods Milk Bottles will Contain 50% Food Grade Recycled HDPE

Alpla, which is targeting an industry first recycled HDPE material content of 50 per cent in all bottles for Arla, will support the dairy company’s aim of delivering a zero carbon facility with zero waste to landfill in Aylesbury.  Alpla has already designed a new range of lightweight HDPE bottles, which will deliver a weight saving in excess of 20 per cent compared to Arla’s current milk bottles.

 
Lars Dalsgaard, director of supply chain at Arla, said: “The appointment of Alpla supports our sustainability strategy and commitment to become Closer to Nature. Alpla will blowmould and handle plastic bottles for Arla with the lowest energy consumption possible, which will assist our zero carbon ambition. It will also provide our customers with the lowest carbon fresh milk packaging available in the UK.”

 
Alpla will work at Aylesbury dairy through a ‘hole-in-the-wall’ operation. Although on site bottle production is currently used at a number of Arla’s other sites, this will be the first on this scale in the dairy industry. The new facility will be of the highest quality, and will have total flexibility, allowing Arla to react quickly to customer requirements in today’s challenging dairy market.

 
Guenther Lehner, CEO of Alpla global, said: “We’ve been working with Arla on this project over the last 18 months and it has been hugely challenging. Our continuous effort to develop plastic container manufacturing processes and packaging designs with utmost environmental and economic efficiencies in mind has resulted in Alpla being a perfect match for Arla in this exciting project. The whole Alpla team is looking forward to putting this ambitious concept into reality and to strengthening the close partnership between our two organisations.”

 
Alpla has considerable experience in the plastic bottle market, having in-plant facilities at blue chip companies all over the world (including five in the UK), as well as two stand-alone UK sites in Milton Keynes and Manchester, ensuring Arla has good supply contingency to support the company’s changing requirements.

 
More info: www.arlafoods.co.uk

Use of Recycled HDPE in Milk Bottles Expands in the U.K.

The Co-op invests in new eco milk bottles

11 April 2012

The Co-operative Food has become the first retailer to reduce the tint in all of its own-brand plastic coloured milk bottle tops, making it easier for them to be recycled into new bottles.

The Co-operative sells 202 million bottles of milk every year, and previously, the amount of recycled plastic that can be used to make new clear milk bottles was limited because bottle tops colour the material.

The move will mean that the retailer will potentially increase the recycled content of plastic milk bottles from 10% to 30% – helping to produce an extra 4,500 tonnes of recyclable material every year.

Iain Ferguson, environment manager for The Co-operative Food, said: “Protecting the environment is a key part of The Co-operative’s groundbreaking Ethical Plan, and we are proud to be leading the way with this initiative and that The Co-operative is the first UK retailer to complete this move on all of its own-brand milk bottles.“

Marcus Gover, director of Closed Loop Economy at WRAP, said: “We are pleased to see The Co-operative making this commitment to boost the recyclability of its own-brand milk bottles. WRAP research found that reducing the tint in milk bottle tops is a ‘quick win’ that can help achieve higher recycled content in milk bottles, thereby reducing the use of virgin plastic and ensuring more efficient use of resources, which is good news for the environment.”

Source: The Co-op

We’re Back

We’ve been awfully quiet for awhile; and for good reason. Demand for recycled HDPE has been very strong since the first of the year and we have had a difficult time keeping all of our valued customers supplied with resins. This increased demand has been remarkable since prices for curbside collected plastics continues to climb, reflecting our customers’ collective desire to make their products more sustainable while helping them meet their goals for reducing their carbon footprint on the planet.

At the same time, we have ramped up production of our EcoPrime, food grade, HDPE recycled resin and have been producing this new FDA approved resin every month. Acceptance has been excellent and we have been busy working with new and existing customers for their food packaging applications.

Also, we’ve been extremely busy; buying more baled scrap from waste haulers and municipalities than ever before, developing ever changing production schedules and just making the end product. We’re back now and we will be posting more articles about plastics recycling and increasing plastic recycled content in products.

As never before, we need to increase the amount of plastic being recycled. The demand for recycled content is growing. We need for more of it to be put in recycle bins and less into landfills.

Be on the lookout for our next post shortly.