Kuwait’s Equate Group announced its Germany-based subsidiary Equipolymers had launched a new food-grade polyethylene terephthalate (PET) product that incorporates 30% chemically recycled PET as feedstock. The new product will be marketed under the “Viridis” brand and is an improvement from the previous version containing 25% recycled PET launched in 2009.
The company claims the new Viridis PET is produced with better quality recyclates that can provide customers with more competitive products with greater added value. The new PET product complies with European Commission regulations for food contact plastics. Equate said it could be used in beverage bottle production and in thermoforming applications.
It noted that the product would be available commercially to the European market by this year’s first quarter. The new product is also in line with the EU’s target to achieve 25% recycled PET in packaging by 2025 and 30% by 2030. Equipolymers operates two production lines, which can produce up to 350,000 tons/year of PET, equal to about 10% of Europe’s PET total capacity.
