21 Jan 2010 --- Nampak Plastics is set to reach another major milestone in 2010 when every HDPE milk bottle it produces will include up to 10% recycled HDPE (rHDPE).  The company produces approximately two billion milk bottles every year meaning that approximately 7,000 tonnes of virgin material will be saved annually as a direct result of this achievement.

This move is a clear demonstration of the leadership Nampak Plastics has taken in the adoption of rHDPE and is excellent news for the whole of the dairy industry, which is committed to including recycled content in its milk packaging as part of Defra’s Milk Roadmap.  Nampak’s customers such as Arla Foods, Dairy Crest, Robert Wiseman, Yeo Valley and Grahams, along with other key UK customers, will be using these recycled-content milk bottles for the supermarket shelves now.

In order to reach this milestone, in excess of £1.5million has been invested by Nampak across its seven sites in the UK. As well as the overall development of the project, this investment has included modifications to the blowmoulding equipment including the installation of new blending machines, material pipework and new silos to enable the use of rHDPE. 

Eric Collins, Managing Director at Nampak Plastics, comments: “It’s a real team effort by everyone at Nampak, along with our customers and other key stakeholders, to have reached this goal. It is also extremely satisfying to know that every single one of our bottles now has recycled content.  Just four years ago ‘bottle-to-bottle’ recycling was unheard of in the UK dairy industry. Now we are adding up to 10% recycled content to all our bottles after extensive testing to ensure compliance with the extremely stringent food quality standards you would expect for this type of packaging.

“It is important to note that it is not just Nampak’s own pledge to include recycled content in its milk bottles, but also a commitment from the whole of the dairy industry via Defra’s Milk Roadmap.”

Eric Collins concludes: “Replacing virgin material with recycled content in our milk bottles is also a significant contributor to Nampak’s continued drive to reducing its overall carbon footprint further still.”