Designing plastic packaging with recycling in mind
We can’t do without plastic packaging, so the question becomes what to do with it
Plastic bottles are the poster child for plastic pollution in the environment. They feature heavily in images of pollution and recycling campaigns: strewn across beaches, floating in rivers, and bobbing alongside sea turtles. These images as well as the undeniable damaging effects on the environment and unsustainability of a single-use society has led to wide-spread calls for the complete ban of plastic.
However, it is difficult to imagine a society without plastic. There are several benefits to these polymerbased materials. PET plastic (from which bottles are made) is lightweight, resource efficient, hygienic, shatterproof, versatile, and in many cases 100% recyclable. The PET Recycling Company (PETCO) points out that without packaging, we wouldn’t be able to purchase liquids, gels, powders or out-ofseason fruit. There would be significant problems with food safety and hygiene, and food wastage would increase, with negative environmental impacts.
Rather than eliminating plastics completely, steps are being taken to ensure that packaging is either reused or recycled, rather than being disposed of after use, in a move towards a circular rather than linear economy.
Government’s recently published Section 18 regulations in the National Environmental Management Waste Act makes Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) mandatory for all producers and importers of packaging. This means that producers, brand owners, retailers and importers of plastic packaging must take physical and financial accountability for the products they put on the market, ensuring they don’t negatively affect the environment after use by consumers.
According to the legislation, manufacturers or importers of plastic packaging must join a producer responsibility organisation (PRO) and pay an EPR fee per tonne to them. The PROS use this revenue to support the collection, sorting and recycling of recyclable materials. There are several plasticsrelated PROS in South Africa that have already been fulfilling this function for their voluntary members for many years.
PETCO is one of these PROS and the organisation has published extensive guidelines for the design of PET plastic packaging based on the requirements of the mechanical recycling process in South Africa. Kara Levy, PETCO’S Marketing Officer, says that designing packaging with the environment in mind will help packaging producers to meet their EPR obligations.
As the guide states: “The recycling of packaging does not begin with its collection, but rather with its design. To maximise the recycling of plastic
packaging, it is essential that retailers, brand owners, packaging manufacturers and designers embed recyclability principles into their pack design processes so that, at the end of its life, the packaging material can be successfully recycled and used again in new products and packaging.”
The comprehensive document acknowledges that while optimal packaging design is necessary to minimise environmental impact, it also needs to fulfil technical, aesthetic, consumer and customer needs. The guide covers in detail how the shape, composition, additives, barrier layers, colour of plastic, closures, labels and adhesives, inks and other components of PET packaging affects its recyclability.
“In the best-case scenario, PET bottles that are clear or very light blue, have labels that come off and have no glue remaining on them, and are not directly printed onto with ink, are 100% recyclable and compatible with recycling infrastructure in South Africa,” says Levy.
These bottles can be used to make new PET bottles. “This is really important for the circular economy in South Africa because it closes the loop and enables one bottle to be turned right back into a new PET plastic bottle,” says Levy. However, there is a finite number of times that a bottle can be made into a new bottle. Those that are no longer suitable for recycling into new bottles are turned into polyester fibre which is used in duvets, car mats and geotextiles. They also create an income for waste collectors who get paid by buy-back centres when they bring in used PET bottles.
When PET products aren’t designed with recycling in mind, there’s a strong chance they will land up at landfill sites. “Or if the bottle is made from something PLA (Polylactic Acid) that looks, feels, and tastes like PET, and it gets into the recycling stream, it can clog up the machines at a recycling plant and have really bad effects on the infrastructure,” Levy points out.
Stats for a graphic:
PET plastic recycling in numbers
PETCO recorded the following stats for 2020:
• 82 469 tonnes of post-consumer beverage
PET bottles collected.
• 55% post-consumer beverage PET bottles
collected for recycling.
• 511 310 cubic metres of landfill space saved. • 123 704 tonnes of carbon emissions saved. • 52 600 active collectors involved in PET
collection and recycling
• R59.2-million spent (by PETCO) in support of
contracted industry recycling projects. • R278-million paid by recyclers for baled
bottles delivered to plants.
• R895-million injected into the downstream
economy.