Amcor Ltd. and Nestle are making sustainable food pouches to your pooch.
The flexible packages are an alternative to metal cans and also eliminate the multi-material approach usually used in pouches, which should make them possible to recycle. Standard retort pouches are high-performing multi-layer, multi-material structures, typically featuring a non-recyclable mix of PET, aluminum foil and polypropylene.
Amcor and Nestle’s solution is a PP pouch, which uses an ultra-thin AmLite transparent barrier coating for product protection and which has been independently tested by cyclos-HTP and confirmed to be recyclable. The pouch will be introduced by Nestlé Purina as packaging for its Felix wet pet food.
In the new pouch, the aluminum foil has been replaced by Amcor’s AmLite barrier coating technology, which, along with a polypropylene film that delivers high-performance for heat processing, yields a pack that can withstand the pressures of heat-sterilization and provide a reliable barrier to oxygen and bacteria.
The recyclable PP pouch substantially improves the environmental footprint of retort pouch packing, reducing the carbon footprint by up to 60 percent compared to standard multi-material solutions, say the partners.
Packaging made of polypropylene can be recycled in existing plastic recycling streams in the Netherlands where the new pouch product is being piloted for a year, with the Netherlands' largest retailer Albert Heijn.
The pouches themselves will be sold in a fully recyclable cardboard box which is, itself, made of 80 percent recycled paper and will contain containers of beef and six of chicken.