Berry International increases use of recycled PE in Europe by 36%

        Berry Global, a US plastic packaging manufacturer, recently announced that its European flexible packaging division has made significant progress in the use of post-consumer recycled polyethylene (rPE), with a year-on-year increase of up to 36%.

        Across product categories, industrial, consumer (non-contact sensitive) and agricultural film products all achieved double-digit growth. Specifically, Berry International has successfully incorporated an additional 4,386 tons of rPE into its diverse flexible film products. These products cover primary packaging applications such as bags used in the construction and chemical industries, heavy-duty bags, and single roll sheets required for horticultural, peat and insulation products. In addition, the application scope of recycled materials has also expanded to the fields of secondary and tertiary packaging, including collation shrink film in the food and beverage industry, and stretch wrap and stretch hood pallet protection film used in the logistics and transportation industry. At the same time, the company has also increased the proportion of recycled PE used in agricultural stretch packaging.

         Tony Nawar, Vice President and General Manager of Flexible Packaging Europe, said: "We have extensive technical experience in integrating recycled plastics and have invested heavily in advanced recycling facilities in Germany and the UK. This allows us to produce packaging solutions with increasing recycled content while ensuring that product performance is not compromised."

         It is worth noting that a few days before Berry announced the increase in the use of recycled materials, it announced the acquisition of Amcor for $8.4 billion. The acquisition will integrate Amcor's global flexible packaging and regional container businesses with Berry's regional flexible packaging and global container businesses.