For the first time in Upper Austria, school milk is being bottled in sustainable cups made from recycled PET (rPET). The joint project between school milk farmers and the three Austrian companies Pet-Man, Starlinger Viscotec and Greiner Packaging aims to show that a sustainable circular economy is possible.
Every day, around 36,000 Upper Austrian children are supplied with fresh school milk products such as fruit milk, drinking yoghurts or school milk cocoa. "In order to carry the idea of the origin of the regional and sustainable product through to the packaging, we have considered how we can ensure that the cups are 100 per cent reusable can," explains Markus NeudorferManaging Partner at the film manufacturer Pet-Man. The solution: the white school milk cup made from 100 per cent rPET.
Unprinted rPET cups
The advantages: It is lightweight, unbreakable and plasticiser-free, making it ideal for schoolchildren. "The new cups are made from 100 per cent recycled, unprinted rPET mono-material and can therefore be repeatedly processed into food-safe cups become", says Alisa Schröerresponsible for Circular Economy projects at Greiner Packaging.
Recycling the cups requires less energy than reprocessing reusable glass, for example, and produces less waste. The school milk farmers take the used cups back with the next school milk delivery. This means that over 30 per cent less CO2-emissions. "The collected cups are collected from the farm, washed and shredded. The shredded material, known as flakes, is then cleaned and processed using Viscotec technology. From this Another cup for food packaging arise," explains Herbert Hofbauer from Starlinger Viscotec.
Regional product in regional packaging
The entire school milk cycle takes place in Upper Austria. "Thanks to the partnership with the three Upper Austrian companies, we can now an exclusively regionally produced school milk range to kindergartens and schools in sustainable packaging," says Johannes Strobl, hay milk farmer and chairman of the Upper Austrian school milk farmers.
Conscious handling of the packaging cycle
Children should already be sensitised to the sustainable use of nature in kindergarten and school. By using the rPET cups, they learn that not all plastic is the same and that it makes a big difference whether packaging is simply thrown away or can be recycled again and again: the recycling cycle of the recyclable material makes recycled PET a sustainable material. a material for the future. In addition, recycled PET is currently the only post-consumer secondary plastic that can be used in food applications in the EU.
Source: Greiner Packaging
