he PET Beverage Packaging Recycling Chain Quality Association is now dissolving after ten years of successful work.
 

Ten years ago the Gütegemeinschaft Wertstoffkette PET-Getränkeverpackungen was launched and awarded the first twelve quality marks to manufacturers of PET bottles, preforms and PET recyclates for compliance with quality standards in the processing and use of recycled PET. Since then, the quality association has achieved a great deal in its view through quality assurance within the recyclables chain: according to its figures, the average recyclate content in PET bottles has increased from around 24 per cent in 2014 to 52 per cent currently. The high average value has been achieved by the members of the quality association, whose quality-labelled products now would all contain 100 per cent recycled material, the quality association points out.
 
In view of this, the members of the quality association decided to dissolve the association in September 2024, as stated in its press release. The quality association has fulfilled its task because its quality criteria have now become a general standard that the beverage filling industry has adopted, it says in its reasoning. In addition, the criteria are said to be used and further developed in the Forum PET of the IK Industrievereinigung Kunststoffverpackungen (German Association for Plastics Packaging and Films) as a guideline for closed-loop applications.
 
‘The work has paid off,’ says Irina Bremerstein, managing director of the quality association: ’The use of recycled materials has now become standard practice and contributes to the significantly reduced carbon footprint of PET bottles.’
 
Sources:

• Press release RAL Gütegemeinschaft (10.12.2024)
• Photo: © RAL