Par-Pak invests in post-consumer PET
Canadian Plastics
Packaging Flexible Packaging Packaging: Regulations Rigid PackagingPlastic food packaging provider Par-Pak has invested in a process that will decontaminate and purify recycled ...
Plastic food packaging provider Par-Pak has invested in a process that will decontaminate and purify recycled PET to FDA and CFIA standards to be utilized back into food packaging.
The equipment consists of state of the art purification and filtration extrusion line and pelletizing process, Par-Pak said, and allows re-pelletized PET resin to be used as raw material to feed the company’s existing PET sheet extrusion lines.
“Utilizing post consumer PET significantly reduces the carbon footprint when compared to using virgin PET resin,” the Brampton, Ont.-based company said. “Green house gas emissions generated in recycling PET are over ten times lower compared to producing virgin resin from fossil fuel. Being able to recycle surrounding areas’ PET back into packaging also greatly reduces the carbon footprint by minimizing the energy required to transport the PET scrap elsewhere.”
According to Par-Pak, the post-consumer recycled PET flakes – to be purchased from regional PET washing plants – are decontaminated in an agitated, heated vacuum reactor for a given time to ensure it meets the FDA requirements for food contact. The flakes are fed to the extruder for heating and plasticizing, and then filtered to remove residual solid contaminants that were not removed during the initial washing process. The melt is then pelletized, and crystallized prior to being stored in silos or packaged in boxes.
Par-Pak expects to have the PET repelletizing line started up and producing material by early 2010.