Recyclable HDPE Drink Carton Fuels Circularity | Jinhua AgileVantage Innovations Co.,Ltd

Award-winning plastic packaging that’s curbside recyclable offers a sustainable alternative to difficult-to-recycle composite beverage cartons.

August 27, 2024

The recyclable, 100% high-density polyethylene (HDPE) ReZorce beverage carton from UK-based Zotefoams has earned a prestigious 2024 German Packaging Award and been shortlisted in the Reuters Sustainability Awards 2024 competition.

Zotefoams’ German Packaging Award is in the Sustainability/Overall Concept category; the award ceremony is scheduled for September 2024. The carton is also a finalist in the Reuters Sustainability Awards’ Product Innovation Award category, with winners to be announced in October.

The German Packaging Award 2024 jury wrote that the mono-material barrier carton “has been proven to reduce environmental impacts such as water and energy consumption by around 50% compared to conventional composite beverage cartons.”

In addition, the carton material lends itself to circular packaging production.

“Our team’s mission has been to develop a more sustainable, circular beverage carton as an alternative to the existing composite material, and we are absolutely delighted that the judges of the German Packaging Award have recognized this,” said Neil Court-Johnston, president of Zotefoams’ MuCell Extrusion business unit, in a prepared statement.

“Achieving circularity — where products are recycled back into the same or similar items — is key to the sustainability of consumer packaging, and we have been able to demonstrate that this is achievable at scale with ReZorce,” Court-Johnston added.

In contrast, standard composite liquid packaging board (LPB) cartons are difficult to recycle because LPB combines layers of mixed materials, such as paperboard, polyethylene, and aluminum.

The ReZorce carton is made from a multilayer material produced using a modified sheet-extrusion process and Zotefoams’ proprietary MuCell microcellular foaming technology, which includes injecting nitrogen into the liquid polymer.

The foamed layers at the core of the structure optimize moisture and oxygen barrier and enable the material to fold like paper. Additionally, the material can be surface printed using conventional printing techniques.

The cartons, which may be made with up to 100% recycled HDPE, are curbside recyclable. Thus, the ReZorce material meets the requirements of the European Union Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulations for increased recycled content and recyclability.

Cartons are produced and filled on standard form-fill-seal equipment retrofitted with change parts. Interested beverage brand owners and contract fillers can participate in fast-track trials at commercial scale in Zotefoams’ test facility.

The next step toward commercialization of the carton will be in-market trials with a major European retailer, which are expected to begin in the next few months.

The ReZorce carton was developed through a joint development agreement between Zotefoams and contract beverage packager Refresco.

Read more about Zotefoams and MuCell at PlasticsToday.

Kate Bertrand Connolly 1

Freelance Writer

Kate Bertrand Connolly has been covering innovations, trends, and technologies in packaging, branding, and business since 1981.