In an Australian first, a new collaboration has Pact Group teaming up with Hilton Foods, Woolworths Group and Cleanaway Waste Management to create a circular solution for meat trays and fruit and vegetable punnets made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET).
The trays and punnets made from PET plastic are cost effective to manufacture, are lightweight but durable, keep the produce fresh, and importantly, are recyclable. However, currently most of the trays that enter the market are not recycled.
In the case of meat trays, it's estimated about 90 per cent this packaging goes to landfill after use, even if consumers place it in their kerbside recycling bins. According to Australian Packaging Consumption and Recovery Data 2021-22, sourced via the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO), of the 43,000 tonnes of trays placed on the Australian market, just 5000 tonnes of this highly recyclable packaging was recovered for recycling in 2021-22. And of this, most of it was either downcycled for industrial products or co-mingled with other PET waste material and exported.
By teaming up with Hilton Foods, Woolworths Group and Cleanaway Waste Management, Pact Group is making it possible for meat trays to be collected, recycled and remanufactured into new meat trays ready for the supermarket shelves.
It works like this: After used meat trays and punnets have been collected through kerbside recycling bins, they are sent to a Material Recovery Facility (MRF), compacted into bales and sent to the Pact-operated Circular Plastics Australia recycling facility in Altona North, Victoria. Here, the trays and punnets are sorted, shredded into smaller pieces called flakes, washed and sanitised.
The flakes are then sent to a Pact Packaging manufacturing plant where they are pressed into thin sheets of recycled plastic, ready to be moulded into their desired shape using thermoform technology. This sheet material is used to make the classic meat tray as well as other food containers ranging from bakery clams for cookies and cakes, and punnets for fresh fruit and vegetables.
According to Pact, these containers can be recycled time and time again, enabling a tray-to-tray solution for the first time in Australia. This process not only helps to divert thousands of tonnes of used plastic trays and punnets from landfills but also reduces the need to use virgin PET plastic made from fossil fuels.
Pact Group is aiming to recycle more than 1000 tonnes of used trays and punnets in its first year of production, which would divert the equivalent of around 48 million meat trays from landfills.
The company says it hopes to grow its tray-to-tray solution so all Australians can benefit from the positive environmental and economic impacts from recycling used plastic packaging and remaking it locally for local businesses.
