Sacks made of rPET flakes in a closed-loop system
With the development of the production technology for woven plastic sacks made from rPET, Starlinger & Co. GmbH now offers the opportunity of closed-loop production for this type of packaging. As Stéphane Soudais, Head of Starlinger’s Consumer Bags Division points out, the company can produce PET tape fabric from virgin PET and recycled PET pellets on their machines for a variety of packaging applications since several years. Now they have achieved a breakthrough in working with recycled PET: they can produce rPET tapes directly from PET bottle flakes.
Fabric made of PET tapes can be converted to various types of woven sacks or used for technical applications, for example carpet backing or geo-textiles. For Soudais, fabric made of rPET flakes brings in an interesting advantage: “With this material, producers of woven plastic packaging have the option of true closed loop production.”
For consumer applications, attractive package design is possible by laminating the rPET fabric with reverse printed BOPET film, which is intended to give the sacks a stunning shelf appearance. An example of eye-catching design on a sustainably produced bag are rPET PP*STAR bags – pinch bottom type bags which are produced on machinery developed by Starlinger. Made of polypropylene, they are already a popular packaging for sensitive products such as dry pet food. Now, they can be produced directly from PET bottle flakes. rPET PP*STAR bags are said to be a sustainable packaging option as they are fully recyclable and can be used to produce PP*STAR pinch bags again – or any other woven plastic bag type, for that matter – thereby closing the loop in the packaging cycle.
