PETpla.net Insider 06 / 2020

PET news 6 NEWS PETplanet Insider Vol. 21 No. 06/20 www.petpla.net PETplanet launches its “PETinars” series of webinars The current coronavirus pandemic is highlighting the need for a fundamental global rethink. With the can- cellation or postponement of international trade fairs, conferences, in-house events and the like, manufactur- ing industry has lost major venues for showcasing new technologies and innovative ideas. The global economy has largely shifted online and virtually as a result of homeworking during lockdowns, international travel restrictions or simply due to a personal and perhaps altruistic sense of safety consciousness. Professional cooperation between the mechanical engineering and end-user industries therefore needs alternative fora for traditional events which are still due to take place this year. And even once the crisis is over, experts already agree that these gatherings should continue, albeit organised in a different way and more digitally. Our PETplanet team is therefore introducing a new feature starting this month called “PETinars”, i.e. webinars created specially by and for our sector! We will be bringing together experts and key figures from across the sector for a series of annual online and interactive sessions consisting of technical pres- entations and discussions, information about products and systems, together with news from suppliers and end-users. Topics will be chosen based on particular PETplanet Insider focus themes, with participation free of charge for our readers. The theme of our first PETinar held on 28 th May was “rPET in stretch blow moulded bottles”. Mr Chris- toph Wöss from Erema and Mr Arne Wiese from KHS discussed the effects of rPET on the design and production of preforms and PET bottles and how the associated bottle to bottle recycling might look. You can find the recording of the PETinar on our website. In our upcoming PETinars in June we will be discussing “Caps and closures manufacturing - injection versus compression moulding and tethered caps”. Participa- tion for PETplanet readers is again free of charge. You can register for the PETinar via this link: www.petpla.net/petinars SGR recycling unit up and running Last November, Société Générale des Techniques (SGT) inaugu- rated its new site at Chalon-Sur-Saône in the east of France, which includes a preforms manufacturing plant and a plastics recycling unit, the SGR. The recycled PET produced by this new unit has been baptised CIRPET. The SGR unit has been up and running since the beginning of the year. It currently employs twenty or so workers and should eventually produce 12,000 t/a of recycled PET. “At present, the supply of recycled food-grade plastic does not meet the demand”, explains Frédéric Mignot, Chairman of the SGT/SGR Group. “To ensure we can supply the requisite volumes and quality rPET, we have decided to produce it ourselves”. This new unit features a unique regeneration line that can produce food grade recycled PET (rPET) via an extruding machine with underwater cutting and a decontamination system that produces rPET whose visible qualities (transparency and colour), mechanical qualities (viscosity) and organoleptic qualities are claimed to match those of virgin PET. Furthermore, the SGR uses a solid state polycondensation (SSP) system that offers the benefit of high industrial security, as all the stages of the thermal process take place in a neutral atmosphere. To introduce the concept of Circular PET, the CIRPET is currently pending approval by EFSA (European Food Safety Authority). www.sgt-pet.com Platform Packaging with Future On May 5 th , representatives of the packaging value chain from Austria announced the launch of the “Platform Packaging with Future” (Verpackung mit Zukunft). This platform was founded by seven companies along the entire value chain - Greiner, Alpla Group, Nestlé Austria, Coca-Cola Austria, Interseroh Austria, Engel Austria and Erema Group. The cornerstones are the promotion of a functioning recycling economy, the creation of more awareness for the sensible use of packaging or the avoidance of packaging and thus the initiation of a constructive dialogue in the area of conflict in the packaging discussion with different stakeholders. Each member makes an important contribution to the success of these projects. The crisis shows the important properties of packaging “The four cornerstones of a functioning circular economy - Reduce, Replace, Reuse and Recycle - are already being imple- mented by the members of the platform in many areas. But together we can drive innovation even further. We want to position Austria as a model country in terms of sustainability in packaging and be a mouthpiece for this”, says Günther Lehner, CEO of the Vorarlberg Alpla Group, a globally active specialist for plastic packaging and recycling. “In the current crisis, important properties of packag- ing - transport protection, longer shelf life of food and the hygiene factor - have become clearly visible. In general, and especially in times like these, plastic packaging has the factual argument on its side - it would be good if it were to remain that way afterwards,” says Angela Teml, Head of Corporate Communications at Nestlé Austria, with a view to the future. Sustainability remains in focus in all considerations and projects. www.verpackungmitzukunft.at