Part of the Informa PLC division

This website is operated by one or more companies owned by Informa PLC, and all copyrights belong to them. The registered office of Informa PLC is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

Amcor Rigid Packaging (ARP) has developed a solution to the problem of small polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles slipping out of cracks in the recycling center. The innovation lies in the bottle design, which maximizes the width of the folded container. ARP Recycling Day in the United States: This innovation was announced on November 15, 2021.

The newly redesigned PET bottle collapses in a controlled manner and becomes wide enough to pass through the recycling process with larger items. According to Amcor, this innovation will allow billions of small bottles to be recycled. The project is part of Amcor's packaging efforts aimed at recycling and is in line with the company's commitment to make all its packaging recyclable, compostable or reusable by 2025.

The first application of this technology is a 50 ml PET bottle, which is the size that airlines use to hold alcohol. When these traditionally designed bottles are sent to a material recovery facility (MRF) in the United States, they tend to filter out broken glass while avoiding the flow of recyclable materials.

The new bottle design overcomes this problem by making the width of the folded bottle greater than 5 cm. This prevents bottles from being lost during the sorting process at most U.S. recycling facilities. The design includes intentional points of failure and is based on the guidelines of the Plastic Recyclers Association.

Terry Patcheak, vice president of research, development and senior engineering at ARP, said in a prepared statement: "This discovery was made by the Amcor team when tests showed that the bottle collapsed in different ways."

"Our simulations show that when these tiny spirits bottles are designed to fold in a specific way, fewer bottles actually fall from the cracks. The potential here is higher recoverability and multiple subdivisions. More recycling content of markets and materials."

Amcor is conducting finite element analysis tests to better understand the dynamics of the new bottles during the recycling process. The company will also work with recycling facilities to obtain real data on the recyclability of new bottles.

"We know that in the MRF we designed to separate glass, many small bottles are passing through the screen, so this is a major development-it allows these bottles to pass this step in the process and have the opportunity to be Capture with proper equipment," said Curt Cozart, chief operating officer of the Plastic Recyclers Association. "When the recycling industry is limited by material supply, every pound added from the waste makes a big difference."

More information about text format