Waddington Europe, a division of Novolex®, has joined forces with its longstanding packaging distribution partner Produce Packaging to introduce containers made with 100% recycled material that are also 100% recyclable after use. Produce Packaging’s new containers will be made with Waddington Europe’s Eco Blend™ 100 material that consists entirely of a combination of post-consumer (PCR) and post-industrial (PIR) recycled PET (rPET). The new containers will be available to all Produce Packaging customers, including growers, packers and importers that supply major retail outlets. The switch to Eco Blend 100 reflects the decision by Produce Packaging to focus increasingly on packaging that is environmentally sustainable.

For Huhtamaki, 2024 was a solid year, with improved safety performance and increased profitability. In the first half of the year, demand was muted in many markets. The second half saw gradual recovery, with variations across categories and regions. Demand for pre-packed food, especially egg packaging, increased, and flexible packaging saw gains in a volatile market. Food on-the-go volumes remained subdued, particularly for coffee chains, due to high prices caused by inflation. The North American foodservice market performed better than other regions. The ongoing Middle East conflict affected global brands in some Middle Eastern and Asian markets throughout the year. In Q4, comparable net sales increased by 3%. Sales volumes growth was supported by customers’ promotional activities. We improved our profitability as the adjusted EBIT margin reached 10.4% and adjusted EBIT grew by 3% to EUR 110 million. For the full year 2024, comparable net sales remained at the previous year’s level. Sales prices decreased due to a pass-through of lower raw material prices, while volumes increased slightly.

“A year ago, it never would occur to me that we would be having a conversation about the challenges of PET recycling,” Keefe Harrison, CEO of The Recycling Partnership, said in the webinar “PET Packaging: Solving for an Out-of-Sync System” on Thursday, February 12. She said that because polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is the highest recycled packaging plastic, with more than 2 billion pounds of PET bottles collected for recycling annually in the US, according to The National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR). And recycled PET is also in demand for use in new packages. But now imports are flooding the market, US PET reclamation facilities are shutting down, and domestic sourcing is in jeopardy. My take on this … PET has been the poster child here in America for plastic packaging recycling and it’s in trouble. This does not bode well for the successful recycling of any packaging plastics in America. And if we don’t recycle, the waste crisis and climate shifts will worsen.