Amcor has launched AmLite Ultra Recyclable, its first packaging product made from the company’s new, more sustainable high-barrier polyolefin film announced last year.
The new high-barrier laminate can package a range of food, home and personal care, and pharmaceutical products, and be recycled in existing polyolefin recycling streams.
AmLite Ultra Recyclable is the latest addition to Amcor’s AmLite product line, which was first created in 2015 to provide metal-free barrier packaging that significantly reduced the packaging’s carbon footprint.
This new generation of AmLite adds recyclability to the environmental benefits and is the culmination of several years of research and development (R&D). The film and its application represent another advancement towards Amcor’s pledge to develop all its packaging to be recyclable or reusable by 2025.
The company reports that that the high-barrier protection can be used on customers’ filling machines and that AmLite Ultra Recyclable will help solve sustainability challenges for pharmaceutical companies, consumer goods brands, and retailers, by helping to keep plastics out of the environment.
AmLite can be used for a variety of formats, such as:
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Pillow pouches
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Stand-up and spouted pouches
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Bags
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Lidding for trays and containers
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Stick packs and more
AmLite Ultra Recyclable will allow Amcor’s customers to move to recyclable flexible packaging across a variety of consumer-product segments, including baby nutrition, pharmaceuticals, and home and personal care.
This represents a major shift for brands, as previously, high-barrier flexible packaging was difficult to recycle. To overcome this, Amcor’s R&D team sought to replace the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) layer of the original AmLite packaging with its novel high-barrier OPP film. To validate recyclability in real conditions, the package is certified by cyclos-HTP Institute, an independent testing lab.
AmLite achieves a reduced carbon footprint by using an ultra-thin, transparent barrier coating to replace aluminum and metallized barriers. That change, combined with recyclability, can reduce a pack’s carbon footprint by up to 64%, according to reports.
AmLite Ultra Recyclable and AmLite Standard Recyclable are the first laminates in the AmLite product range to offer recyclability. AmLite Standard Recyclable, which provides medium- to high-barrier protection for ambient applications, is already on supermarket shelves due to some early adopter brands. AmLite Ultra Recyclable is now available for broader customer trials.
Amcor’s R&D experts are continuing work with new polyolefin films to develop solutions for even more demanding applications, such as recyclable packaging for retort processing.
