Driving the Circular Economy: Penn Color

The winner of our award for Driving the Circular Economy, Penn Color, has developed a new masterbatch technology for PET bottles to achieve high levels of opacity and whiteness combined with excellent recyclability.

PE: Firstly, congratulations on winning the award! What does this mean for you?

PC: We are thrilled to receive the Sustainability Award. The award goes to our R&D team who have done an exceptional job, to our customers who have trusted us and to our partners who have helped us. The award is also a testament to the ability of our industry to do the right thing for sustainability, with passion and resilience. As they hear about the Sustainability Award 2020 going to pennaholtTM, many customers are reaching out to us: we are excited to talk to them about their products and to pave the way with them for next-generation colours and functional additives driving circularity.

PE: Could you please introduce your successful entry and what’s innovative about it?

PC: The pennaholt™ masterbatch technology for PET bottles is the firstever 0% TiO2 masterbatch achieving levels of opacity and whiteness that would typically require around 8% TiO2 with a conventional technology. Patent-pending pennaholt™ uses a mechanism completely different from conventional technologies: pennaholt™ technology generates micro-structured interfaces in the thickness of the PET bottle side wall, creating a barrier to light with high reflective power. pennaholt™ exploits the synergy between the reflection of light on this impassable barrier and the light scattering effect of inert particles, to create opacity and whiteness, without TiO2. pennaholt™ can be used in any stretch-blow moulded PET bottles and several different types of formulations are available, including variants with no particles and no minerals.

The pennaholt™ technology is applicable to both monolayer and multilayer bottles. The first generation of pennaholt™, offering the same opacity and whiteness with 50% less TiO2 than conventional masterbatch technologies, is being introduced in a large-scale consumer test in Europe for long shelf-life white milk.

PE: What are the environmental challenges in packaging that your entry addresses, and what impact do you hope it will make?

PC: pennaholt™ was initially designed to alleviate the challenges faced by recyclers who reported that the increasing concentration of TiO2 in the non-clear recycled PET stream was likely the root cause of processing issues such as filters clogging, filaments breaking for non-woven textile applications, and poor performance of the end products.

With the 0% TiO2 version, pennaholt™ answers a broader set of challenges. On the regulatory side, a new Classification Labelling and Packaging regulation was adopted in 2020 for TiO2 in Europe. The new CLP does not directly affect PET packages per se, but it triggers a domino effect: under the new CLP classification, when packages with more than 1% TiO2 become waste, they fall in a category of the EU Waste Directive that could make them difficult and likely cost prohibitive to recycle.

In addition, the Single-Use Plastics Directive is setting the goal of 90% recycled rate and 30% recycled content in each package. This combination makes it critical for additives to be specifically ‘formulated for circularity’.

PE: ‘Sustainability’ in packaging is multi-dimensional – both in terms of objectives and challenges. Could you comment on the most important roadblocks you identify from your position in the value chain, and the kinds of solutions you would like to see addressing them?

PC: A major misconception is that PET can shrink its way to success from a recyclability point of view, by pushing brands to make compromises on the functionalities or aesthetics of the PET packages. The largest growth potential for PET is in segments (liquid dairy, home & personal care, food) where colours and engineered packages are essential to shelf appeal and functional performance.

It is critical to restore the trust of consumers, NGOs, law makers, and politicians in what our industry is capable of doing. n