Why?

The business relationship with our customer, who is market leader in the area of feed for ornamental and pond fish, has existed since 1995 and has resulted in a large product portfolio. This includes various sizes of round cans with a capacity of between 85ml and 1250ml. Individual geometries were developed for each of these designs and customised requirements were taken into account. Specifically, this involves a round jar with a thread that is intended for a screw cap. The geometry also offers the option of using a sealing plate.
With a focus on sustainability and resource conservation, our mutual collaboration has led to a new project to optimise the existing product range. The use of rPP (recycled polypropylene) is to be implemented for serial products following successful testing of the specifications and compliance with the material properties. Due to the availability issues of rPP, the focus is to be placed on SPIES scrap material (PIR - post-industrial recycled).

Innovative!

During the analysis phase, the collected scrap was regranulated using a mechanical process. Laboratory analyses of the recycled material were then carried out in order to define the material specification deviations. Once the base material had been analysed, sample productions and migration analyses were carried out. This revealed considerable colour differences in the reject material and the resulting granulate. The colour spectrum was then narrowed down further by pre-sorting the reject material accordingly, ensuring better homogeneity of the material. In the final step, large series tests were carried out at the customer's premises and passed without any deviations on the existing filling line. No significant changes in the further processing or handling of the cans, e.g. when sealing or capping the product, were identified.

Result

The successful realisation of the project made it possible to close the material loop by reusing SPIES' own scrap. Shortly afterwards, the product was launched in PIR packaging for the whole of Europe. The reuse of the scrap material alone saves around 50 tonnes of new plastic per year. The common goal is to switch our customer's entire product portfolio to PIR material.

Customer Benefits

In addition to the positive impact on the company's sustainability figures and image, the customer benefits from identical handling and seamless use in the filling line due to the retention of virtually all the original packaging features.

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