PETpla.net Insider 06 / 2019

PET planet Insider Vol. 20 No. 06/19 www.petpla.net 22 JUBILEE The 115 sets of moulds supplied (1 set = 1 mould + 2 inserts), for 7 Russian factories, were equipped with lighter, lub-free composite com- ponents and treated for a greater durability with the application of the ceramic coating, ensure high wear resistance combined with a low coef- ficient of friction, bigger resistance to corrosion and an antibacterial and self-cleaning action. PET bottle processing of the future - Voices from the industry Robert Schiavone, Global Market- ing Director at R&D/Leverage, USA: “Bottles are being scrutinised as part of the whole ban on plastics movement grows. There have been plastic bag bans as you know; now one state here in the US has also banned bottles… So no doubt the future of the bottle is going to be more about raw material selections and innovative properties of raw materi- als that are allowing for a stream- lined recyclable end use… As big box stores also begin to clamp down on the use of plastics and sustainability – the challenge is real and we will see more of this as the years go on.” Sacmi Imola S.C., Italy: “The bottle of the near future will be produced using PET from renew- able sources; bottles will incorporate large proportions of recycled PET, in some cases up to 100%. The rea- sons for this will be a mix of new leg- islation coming up and brand owners social reasonability. This large use of recycled PET in new bottles will be possible because brand owners and designers will follow guidelines and certain criteria during the develop- ment phase of a new product, in order to facilitate PET recycling. These fore-thinking decisions will allow recycling PET bottles back into high-end applications, such as bot- tles. The market players will sponta- neously decide to limit the colour of the bottles to clear PET or light blue, and most of the marketing messages will be conveyed via easily separa- ble labels and labels not as big as to impede reliable automatic recognition at sorting plants. The trend towards light weighting will continue for single use bottles, while more markets will embrace the use of returnable bottles, which will have the required strength and solidity to resist up to 15-20 filling cycles. Bottles will be designed for ease of handling and consumer convenience, not to convey marketing messages, which often are not relevant for the real users of the packages. Marketing wise, this would be sustainable as the buying decision making process is expected to be shifted from actual shelves to on-line platforms, as e-commerce volume of fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) is expected to rise steadily.” Sipa, Zoppas Industries Group of companies, Italy: “The best of PET is yet to come: it’s crystal clear that PET will keep its lead- ing role worldwide, to water populated megalopolis and remote rural areas. We need to consider that it would be uto- pian to live without plastic, at this point. Plastic itself is not the evil. Evil is the misuse and lack of information, educa- tion and attitude in plastic littering. Public opinion against plastics is helpful, though, to boost PET recycle: and we believe in virtuous bottle- to-bottle to avoid downgrade of our beloved high-value macro molecule. It’s an obliged way to recover single use bottle (average usage time: 30 sec) to prevent littering and rivers/ oceans pollution as well as to lessen our addiction to oil. We believe in circular economy, and we make it happen with Xtreme Renew, turning un-expensive post- consumer flakes in to food grade per- forms in one single cycle. This is the current macro trend, and it’s a great solution for our planet in PET. On top of this, we still continue to develop weight reduction (from 4 g single serve, to 20 l for HOD), together with refillable application (where heavy weight is compensated by longer lifecyle).” www.petengineering.com www.rdleverage.com www.redupet.com www.sacmi.it www.sipa.it