Industry associations Petcore Europe (Brussels / Belgium; https://petcore-europe.org) and Plastics Recyclers Europe (PRE, Brussels / Belgium; www.plasticsrecyclers.eu) have published guidelines for the design of PET thermoformed food and non-food trays to help boost recycling efforts.

Petcore’s PET thermoforms working group has developed the document entitled "Design for recycling guidelines for PET thermoformed trays – clear transparent to be recycled even in food applications." The guidelines will also be implemented in the PRE RecyClass tool (www.recyclass.eu) – see Plasteurope.com of 07.06.2018.

The document incorporates three levels of recycling compatibility – full, limited and low – with guidelines on the use of barriers, additives, lidding films, labels and adhesives. Petcore Europe said it welcomes suggestions to the guidelines and will evaluate any new incoming technology in order to improve them.

Several months ago, the two associations urged European policymakers not to impose targets for reducing consumption of PET trays and other PET food containers – see Plasteurope.com of 12.10.2018. Instead Petcore Europe and PRE would like to see specific targets that enforce the separate collection and recycling of PET trays.