Why is PET the best choice for packaging water?
Nadeem Amin: It’s safe, lightweight, unbreakable, resealable, glossy and transparent. Lightweight plastic water bottles also require fewer raw materials to produce, less fuel to transport and are completely recyclable.
Bottlers have been consistently reducing the amount of material that goes into manufacturing beverage containers made from PET. Half-litre plastic water bottles now use as little as 9.2g of PET, nearly 40% less than the average amount just a few years ago.
Is there a high level of demand for PET at the moment?
Amin: Yes, global demand for PET is growing, particularly in developing markets with emerging middle classes, including several countries in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. Increasing sustainability concerns have made PET a more attractive packaging alternative. Faster cycle times mean higher productivity for every dollar of invested capital.
Husky has a long track record of providing customers with continuous productivity increases, which have driven down the cost of manufacturing PET bottles and helped to make it more competitive with alternative packaging formats. This is the basis for PET’s increasing popularity over the last 30 years.
Describe the range of PET services that you offer the bottled water industry.
Amin: Husky offers a broad range of complete beverage packaging solutions, including preform design and development, injection-molding preform systems, barrier solutions, factory planning, preform molds and mold refurbishing and conversion services, as well as optimised systems for beverage closures.
From high to low volumes, we offer HyPET injection-molding systems for every PET preform application. We believe that our HyPET systems are the most productive in the industry, with fastest cycles, high up-times and low scrap rates.
HyCAP is Husky’s injection-molding system for high output beverage closure manufacturing, and is the result of refinements to the entire system that maximise speed, reliability and efficiency. It’s also ideally suited to meet the requirements of lightweight, one-piece closures that are growing in popularity for beverage packaging.
Beverage manufacturers can work with us as a single-source supplier to optimise designs so that all elements – neck finish, bottle and closure – work together as a complete package. This results in better coordination of package redesigns or lightweighting initiatives.
What are the latest technical developments in PET bottles for water, and how are they broadening design possibilities for bottled water manufacturers?
Amin: The latest developments are helping to make the PET package more sustainable by reducing the carbon footprint of plastic PET bottles. In an effort to increase the content of recycled material in beverage packaging, Husky has developed the HyPET Recycled Flake system, which is specifically optimised for manufacturing preforms with high percentages of food-grade recycled material. The system will help to make PET packaging more sustainable by enabling the use of up to 50% post-consumer recycled PET flake.
Husky also offers the EcoBase preform design, which is the first initiative of its kind to offer customers an industrialised lightweighting solution that yields up to a 2.5% reduction in resin use by focusing on the preform base design.
Closures for PET water bottle applications are also getting increasingly lighter, as some weigh less than 1g.
How is your company addressing environmental issues?
Amin: We have long been committed to minimising the impact our business has on the environment with methods that are socially responsible, scientifically based and economically sound. Our buildings fit into the natural landscape and have highly efficient lighting, heating, cooling and insulation. We use natural elements wherever possible. Some examples of this are day lighting, ground cooling, solar energy and green roofs. We recycle virtually every waste stream profitably, and invest in products and technologies that support environmental sustainability.
Our Preform Development Centre develops preform designs that are customised for the specific needs of each customer’s unique application. Husky ensures each design is optimised for product performance, tooling flexibility, part weight and injection-molding cycle times. In addition, we offer the EcoBase preform, which delivers up to an additional 2.5% in resin savings.
Most recently, Husky has been working to close the loop in terms of recycling and this is consistent with consumers’ increased interest in sustainability. What was once one-way packaging can now be recycled, and exploring this is core to Husky’s environmental values. Our goal for the next generation of PET equipment is to be able to use recycled flake without the need for an additional process.
Our manufacturing advisory services team also provides operational consulting, design and project management services to help manufacturers increase the operating efficiency of their plastic injection-molding facilities.
What does the future hold for PET as a packaging material for water?
Amin: In terms of lightweighting, there’s still scope for more widespread adoption of lightweighted bottles. The lightest water bottles on the market still only represent a small percentage of all bottles in the world, so there’s significant potential to reduce resin usage. But trying to get every bottle down to the lightest weight isn’t the goal.
Each application is unique in its performance requirements due to differences such as filling equipment, cappers, shipping distances and conditions. With so many brands of bottled water available on the market, many brand owners desire bottle designs that differentiate themselves among the competition. This will lead to the development of increasingly unique designs. Several recent examples are the Isklar, Eska and 5100 Tibet Glacier bottles.
Nadeem Amin – director, PET business development, Husky – was interviewed by Medina Bailey, editor of Water Innovation magazine. Subscribe here.
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