Greiner Packaging UK & Ireland has announced it is the first packaging manufacturer in Northern Ireland to gain the Sustainably Sourced Plastics (SSP) Certification.
It also said the Dungannon, Northern Ireland, site is the first Greiner Packaging factory in the world to be awarded Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Chain of Custody certification.
SSP Certification ensures required recycled content percentage can be traced and assured, from recyclers to manufacturers and retailers.
“From recyclers to manufacturers and brand owners, more and more elements of the supply chain are demanding ethical procurement of recycled plastics to meet customer demand,” said Andy Whyle, Sustainable Certifications Group (SCG) senior sustainability and commercial manager.
“SCG manages, measures and monitors the whole supply chain, creating an evidence portfolio, with checks being made to validate material testing and in-process quality controls. Flex 6228 tests are used, for the plastics included in the standard, to create a material ‘fingerprint’. The combined findings are assessed, and when all requirements are met, the SCG Team award SSP Certification, clearly demonstrating legislation and customer conformance, such as UK Plastic Packaging Tax and ESG ethical procurement reporting.”
The SSP and FSC certifications come after the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) approved the decontamination process used at the factory to recycle post‐consumer PET into food contact materials.
Kathy Reid, quality systems lead, Greiner Packaging UK & Ireland, said: “We invested over £3,700,000 in our new PET decontamination and extrusion line to enable the use of more recycled materials in our market-leading packaging ranges. This is the latest step in our continued commitment to innovate, increase capacity and reduce our carbon footprint. Being able to prove that the food-safe plastic we use is sustainably sourced and that the cardboard is from responsibly managed forests further demonstrates our leadership in sustainable packaging.”
Paul Millar, general manager, added: “We celebrated our 50th anniversary at Dungannon in 2022 and announced new investments totalling over £10m. We also joined RECOUP, the official RecyClass auditor for rigid plastic packaging in the UK, and put a new fleet of trailers carrying our ‘We love sustainable packaging’ message onto the nations’ roads. We are looking forward to an equally exciting 2023, as we continue to roll out the new K3 r100 self-separating cardboard-plastic pack, which is our most sustainable packaging solution to date.”
Greiner Packaging UK & Ireland is exhibiting at the Packaging Innovations event at the NEC, Birmingham, on 15th and 16th February, on stand H20.
