PETpla.net Insider 10 / 2016

MATERIAL / RECYCLING 10 PET planet Insider Vol. 17 No. 10/16 www.petpla.net A quality association for environmentally friendly PET bottles A circle of PET life - displaying the whole supply chain, part 1 In the non-alcoholic soft drinks packaging sector, the PET bottle has achieved a high level of market acceptance, with a more than 80% market share in Germany. This success brings with it a huge responsibility for both industry and consumers: if a product is so well received in the market, it must be produced in a process that saves resources and is environmentally friendly and climate friendly. Although the recovery rate of used PET bottles in Germany is high (99.9%) thanks to a well function- ing deposit system, there are various countries where deposit and collection systems do not work well yet or have not yet established themselves. This often results in mountains of rubbish. Primarily via rivers, these reach the oceans and threaten the global eco- system. The “Gütegemeinschaft Wert- stoffkette PET-Getränkeverpackungen e.V.” RAL quality assurance associa- tion in Germany is an organisation aimed at preventing this litter and pro- ducing more economically using fewer resources. Production processes and the product are monitored with a view to optimising the PET bottle’s supply chain. This improvement not only has an impact on resource efficiency, positive cost savings and climate protection during production, but also functions as a quality award to attract consumers. The association was founded to promote the further evolu- tion of PET drinks bottles with respect to ecological factors, i.e. to close the resource chain for PET packaging material and therefore increase the rPET content in drinks bottles. We met Andreas Normann, Head of Sales at Hansa Heeman AG and Chair of the “Gütegemeinschaft Wert- stoffkette PET-Getränkeverpackungen e.V.” RAL quality assurance asso- ciation at the company’s location in Bruchsal. The Hansa-Heemann AG Group fills approximately 2bn bottles a year. The plant in Bruchsal is equipped with the latest machinery from KHS and Sidel. As expected with these quanti- ties, Hansa Heemann AG manufac- tures its preforms on site. Andreas Normann explains to us that Hansa- Heeman encouraged the blocking of machines and/or merger of individual production steps at the Bruchsal loca- tion to be able to guarantee these large sales volumes on the market. Andreas Normann reports that the idea for the RAL quality assurance association had already emerged in 2011/12. The basic idea that drove the association was improving the PET bottle’s life cycle assessment. The association defined standardised parameters and measurements for the production of PET bottles to guaran- tee product safety. There are regula- tions for bottle-fillers, preform manu- facturers and recyclers. According to Andreas Normann, these regulations have to be evaluated, supplemented and expanded from time to time. They include, for example, instruc- tions for recyclate manufacturing: DIN standards and EFSA regulations are prerequisites, and this also applies to preform and bottle manufacturing. All regulations are transparently viewable on the association’s website. One important factor to signifi- cantly improve the PET bottle’s life cycle assessment is the use of rPET. The Ifeu Institute for Energy and Envi- ronmental Research Heidelberg, Ger- many has documented this in many scientiic studies. For this reason, some companies especially empha- sise rPET use. The quality associa- tion together with the Institute has developed a model for the ecological impact that is used in designing bot- tles (see fig.1 ). The RAL quality assurance asso- ciation is a working group of execu- tive nature: the applicants are subject to rules. There is a quality committee that assesses the anonymised data and further develops processes. If individual parameters are not met during the inspection, the member is given a second chance to improve, and a deadline is set. If the desired result has still not been achieved, this may lead to the certification mark being withdrawn. This process ensures that there is compliance with the statutory minimum requirements and standards at the member compa- nies. The RAL (German Institute for Quality Assurance and Certification) is a well respected institute in Germany that enjoys the trust and confidence of consumer associations, the industry Andreas Normann, Head of Sales at Hansa-Heeman and Chair of the “Gütegemeinschaft Wertstoffkette PET- Getränkeverpackungen e.V.” RAL qual- ity asurance association at the compa- ny’s location in Bruchsal, Germany. By Heik Fischer