Unilever has announced that it will partner with Ioniqa and Indorama Ventures to pioneer a new technology which converts PET waste back into virgin grade material for use in food packaging.
The start-up Ioniqa has developed a proprietary technology that is able to convert any PET waste – including coloured packs – back into transparent virgin grade material. The technology has suc- cessfully passed its pilot stage and is now moving towards testing at an industrial scale. Indorama Ventures is a global producer of PET resins.
In 2017, Unilever committed to all of its plastic packaging being reusable, recyclable or composta- ble by 2025. Chief R&D officer David Blanchard said that Unilever is proud to support another sustainable packaging innovation.
David Blanchard said: “We want all of our packaging to be fit for a world that is circular by design, stepping away from the take-make-dispose model that we currently live in. This innovation is particularly exciting because it could unlock one of the major barriers today – making all forms of recycled PET suitable for food packaging. Indeed, making the PET stream fully circular would be a major milestone towards this ambition, not just helping Unilever, but transforming industry at large.”
PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) is widely used to produce plastic packaging, yet worldwide only around 20% of this material makes its way to recycling plants. Ioniqa’s technology takes non- recycled PET waste and breaks it down to base molecule level, while separating the colour and other contaminants. The molecules are converted back into PET which is equal to virgin grade quality at Indorama’s facility. If proven successful, in future it will be possible to convert all PET back into high quality, food-grade packaging.