The European PET Bottle Platform (EPBP; www.epbp.org) has extended its design guidelines for PET bottles to include opaque white ones (see Design Guidelines). The aim of these guidelines is to dispense with certain additives and label substrates etc. at the packaging-development stage so more white bottles can be recycled. Although milk is increasingly being packaged in these bottles in France, Belgium, and Italy, for example, there have been no separate recycling streams for this fraction to date.

Five litres will be the maximum package size in the future, and biodegradable and oxo-degradable additives are no longer to be used, the EPBP said. Substrates made of polyethylene and polypropylene are permitted for labels, provided their density is less than 1 g/cm³.

Label substrates with a density greater than 1 g/cm³, such as PVC, polystyrene, PET, and PLA, are on the negative list. This is because some of these materials, which impede recycling, can be more easily separated from the base material during the recycling process than others.

The EPBP is a voluntary industry initiative that issues guidelines for PET-bottle recycling and evaluates packaging solutions and technologies for PET bottles. Its design guidelines are published in the form of recommendations and are not binding.

The EU recycling targets also apply to opaque white PET beverage bottles; 25% of these bottles must be recycled by 2025 with the figure rising as high as 30% by 2030. Against this background, the EPBP states that the aim ought to be to recycle additional volumes.