Mars Pet Products Company's Sheba Brand Will Use Certified Recycled Plastics From SABIC Trucircle Portfolio

Sabic, Mars Pet Products and Huhtamaki have announced that their collaboration on pet food packaging has expanded to include certified recycled polypropylene (PP) in the SABIC Trucircle portfolio
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Mars Pet Products has used a flexible film structure of Sabic PP BCT18F impact copolymer for retort pouches for packaging Sheba wet food
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The multilayer film is produced by Finnish company Huhtamaki
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Sabic's Lada Kurelec said: "We are very pleased with the ongoing strategic collaboration with Mars and Huhtamaki
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The industry's transition to a circular economy requires unprecedented innovation and in-depth collaboration across the value chain
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Together we build on this exciting journey Another milestone
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“Over the past year, we have been working closely with Sabic and Huhtamaki to continuously test and learn and expand the amount of recycled plastic in our pet food packaging,” said Barry Parkin, Chief Sourcing and Sustainability Officer, Mars Inc.
"As part of our 'Sustainability for a Generation' initiative, we are committed to doing our part to help drive a circular economy, which includes redesigning our packaging to be circular
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We are now able to introduce recycled content in Sheba bags, which Helps us accelerate our goal of achieving an average of 30% recycled content in plastic packaging and reducing the use of virgin plastic by 25%
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In November 2020, Mars announced its goal to introduce the food-safe recycled ingredient PP into its pet food packaging
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One of the most critical issues for the joint development team to overcome is the technical challenges involved in getting the complex new packaging structure approved, the companies said
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Wet food retort packaging is associated with harsh thermal processing conditions to ensure the highest food quality and help Mars Pet Products achieve its goal of creating a better world for pets
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By using recycled-sourced materials under the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification ISCC PLUS program, it demonstrates that recycled content can be safe even under the most challenging packaging processes, the partners said
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Marco Hilty, President of Huhtamaki's Flexible Packaging Business Unit, said: "Successful processing of recycled polymers into high-quality, tear-resistant wet retort packaging films on an industrial scale is the key to achieving over 80% of our raw materials being renewable or recyclable.
An important milestone for our target
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This is important to consumers and is in line with our ambitious 2030 strategy
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Huhtamaki uses certified recycled polymers as phthalate-free and gel-controlled film layers to give soft bags high impact strength and puncture resistance, even at temperatures as low as minus 20 degrees Celsius So.

_ For wet food packaging, the pouch must also be able to withstand a distillation temperature of 135°C for 60 minutes
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In applications ranging from freezing to baking, higher heat resistance may be required, up to 160°C
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