Garden care company Yates has partnered with flexible pouch manufacturer OF Packaging to develop a mono-polymer rPE stand-up pouch, with 60 per cent recycled content. PKN spoke to both companies about the development.
The new material development was discussed at the AIP Australasian Packaging Conference in Melbourne this week, where packaging innovation manager at Yates, Liza Vernalls, explained how OF Packaging’s film material had met Yates’ sustainability criteria.
“We were looking to improve the recycled content of our films, but the material had to meet or surpass the current barrier performance, work on existing forming equipment, and have sufficient rigidity to stand up,” she said, adding that the material also needed to be able to incorporate zipper closures, have no impact on print quality, and of course, meet current cost targets.
“OF Packaging’s highly engineered film with 60 per cent recycled content, which is a mix of post-industrial recycled (PIR) and post-consumer recycled (PCR), was the ideal solution,” Vernalls said.
“The films performed well on our forming equipment with no changes. Print looks phenomenal and as a result we have implemented this on five SKUs across our growing media range.”
Vernalls confirmed there are plans to implement this material across a further 26 SKUs in 2023, noting that Yates will continue to work with OF Packaging to increase the amount of PCR in the films going forward.
Jessica Ansell, marketing manager at OF Packaging, told PKN the company has been been working on redesigning and re-engineering flexible packaging film structures towards mono-polymer for the past number of years, removing problematic plastics that reduce recyclability.
“Having achieved great outcomes in this space, we’ve turned our focus onto achieving the use of recycled content in our packaging formats, which in the flexible space has greater challenges than other packaging formats,” Ansell said.
“Working with Yates on this 60 per cent recycled content, 100 per cent mono PE structure has been a great milestone for both ourselves and Yates in the mission to decrease virgin material usage while maintaining functionality and shelf-appeal through the Aussie-converted bags,” she added.
“Through our Close the Loop Group network of partners and divisions, we have been trialling the recycling and reuse of Australian-sourced, PCR recycled content mixed from semi-rigids and soft plastics that we will continue to develop. This will allow sustainability-minded brands like Yates the opportunity to utilise higher percentages of Australian-sourced PCR materials for their ranges in the future.”
Vernalls concluded, “At Yates our ambition is to be the most sustainable garden care company in Australia and New Zealand, leading the way in reshaping the category. Scouting for new plastics and alternate materials; incorporating as much recycled content as possible; reducing plastics by lightweighting, resizing and removing unnecessary plastics; and designing plastic packaging to be recycle ready.”
