With its entry in PET filling, Belgian dairy Inex (Bavegem; www.inex.be) has recently expanded its production capacities for UHT (ultra-high temperature) milk. The 0.5-litre and 1-litre bottles are produced and filled on a “Combi Predis” stretch blow moulding machine from French supplier Sidel (Octeville-sur-Mer; www.sidel.com). The Belgian dairy declined to comment on financial details about the investment when asked by Plasteurope.com.

“The decisive factor for the investment was that PET is not only a good solution for safe and durable products with low acidity, but also a 100% recyclable material for a closed loop of recyclables,” Inex CEO Steven Dierickx said. “The new PET bottle is 20% lighter than polyethylene plastic bottles and as a result has a 20% lower carbon footprint.” At the same time, at least 25% of the preforms being used by Inex are made from recycled material.

Inex exports about half of its production – including fresh and UHT milk, dairy-based drinks, cream and other dairy products – to neighbouring countries. In addition to PET, carton composites complement the packaging portfolio. Additionally, the Belgian dairy has announced that it also plans to fill cream in PET containers in the future.

Meanwhile, Sidel recently introduced “Nuuk”, a Greenland-inspired water bottle concept made of rPET. Every year, Sidel says it analyses around 100,000 bottle concepts and creates up to 8,000 bottle designs. With around 5,500 employees, its turnover in 2019 was EUR 1.4 bn. Sidel is part of the Tetra Laval Group (Pully / Switzerland; www.tetralaval.com), a privately held multinational company of Swedish origin, along with carton packaging supplier Tetra Pak (Lausanne / Switzerland; www.tetrapak.com) and DeLaval, which specialises in dairy processing.