PETpla.net Insider 04 / 2021

BOTTLING / FILLING PETplanet Insider Vol. 22 No. 04/21 www.petpla.net 24 A sustainable solution at Ice River Spring Enough plastic to re-use it “Our philosophy is based on the three Ps: people, planet, and profit.” Howe firmly believes that coordinat- ing the three Ps is crucial. “PET and plastics in general have been getting a lot of negative attention lately world- wide. But Ice River Springs is already ahead of the game. By completely reusing PET plastic in a closed loop, we’re being part of the solution.” The year 2009 was an important one for Ice River Springs as the company received a permission to use 100% recycled PET plastic in its water bot- tles. “We were the first bottler in North America to produce food-grade recy- cled PET and use it to manufacture 100% recycled content bottles. We’re still the only one to maintain a closed loop today,” Howe says with visible pride and she adds, “We’ve done it to protect the environment. What’s special about our company is that we don’t base our decisions primarily on cost but rather on sustainability.” Closed plastics loop Sandy and Jamie Gott tried a few different options before deciding to produce their own recycled PET. “PLA (polylactic acid) couldn’t offer the shelf life we needed, and it gave the water an off taste. Carton-based packaging isn’t easily recyclable and has a much larger carbon footprint,” says Howe. “We then started to use recycled PET, but the quality of the pellets we were buying on the open market wasn’t very consistent from batch to batch. So, my parents decided to build their own recycling plant and produce their own rPET.” The company’s Blue Mountain Plastics plant now converts 25,000 metric tons of post-consumer PET material a year into food-grade resin pellets. Ice River Springs buys around 80% of the total volume of PET plas- tic collected by municipal recycling programs in Ontario for this purpose. Three of the company’s seven bot- tling plants are equipped with injection moulders that turn the recycled pellets into preforms. All seven plants have Contiform blow moulders that inflate the preforms into bottles. Ice River Springs also manufactures its own caps and printed shrink films, which already contain 20% recycled mate- rial. The company’s subsidiary C.R. Plastic Products transforms HDPE cap material, that is collected through the recycling line, into durable outdoor fur- niture. Every addition to the Ice River Family of Companies drives forth the belief that “there’s enough plastic in the world – we need to re-use it.” 108,000 containers per hour Until recently, Ice River Springs had used one Krones/Kosme filling line for 4 l containers and another for 500ml bottles (which included a Contiform blow moulder) at their Lachute plant, west of Montreal. Since the 500ml line was no longer able to keep up with increased demand, Ice River Springs has now replaced it with a twin line featuring two ErgoB- loc L systems that can process a total of 108,000 containers per hour. “We don’t have a lot of space here in Lachute. So this line’s compact layout was a perfect fit,” says Howe. The line isn’t Ice River Springs’ first high-speed line from Krones. Back in 2002, the company installed one at its home base in Feversham. In 2016, they replaced that line with a new one featuring an ErgoBlocL for blow mould- ing, labelling, and filling 81,000 con- tainers per hour. The Miami plant has also had a 108,000bph twin line from Krones in operation since 2018. That line is identical to the one just commis- sioned in Lachute. High-speed twin line In designing this turnkey line, Krones combined two 55,000bph block systems for the wet end to bring the total capacity up to 108,000bph. Each ErgoBloc L system consists of a Contiform 3 Pro stretch blow moulder, a Solomodul labeller with four Conti- roll HS stations, a Modulfill VFJ filler, and a Checkmat FEM-X inspector. The two streams converge in the dry end, where the finished PET containers are processed. The Variopac Pro FS packer produces shrink packs in four different sizes. Palletising is being handled by a Modulpal Pro 1AD with a Robobox grouping system. The ErgoBloc L meets all of Ice River Springs’ expectations in terms of sustainability: “The machines process recycled PET plastic preforms with no problems,” explains Howe. “The bottles run as if they were made of virgin PET. We have actually had Krones technicians comment on how well the preform processes.” Crystal Howe, Sustainability Manager Ice River Springs As Sustainability Manager at Ice River Springs Co. and Blue Mountain Plastics, Crystal Howe has, of course, made sustainability a top priority. But she’s not alone. The entire company shares her passion.