100 % rHDPE – FDA gives green light for Starlinger recycling process

• “Letters of No Objection” of FDA confirm use of up to 100 % recycled HDPE in food contact packaging
• Elementary step: Odour reduction

In August 2021 Starlinger & Co GmbH received two Letters of No Objection (LNO) issued by the US Food and Drug Administration FDA regarding its newly developed machine concept for processing post-consumer HDPE scrap. The LNOs apply to the HDPE bottle-to-bottle and cap-to-cap recycling processes respectively, and confirm that HDPE regranulate produced with the Starlinger recycling process can be used at levels of up to 100 % in packaging with food contact. Already in 2012 Starlinger received its first FDA LNO for the use of recycled HDPE.

• 

• 

• 

An elementary step: Odour reduction

The new Starlinger machine concept consists of a recoSTAR dynamic recycling line with a C-VAC degassing module and downstream odour reduction technology. The removal of odours plays an important role in the production of food-grade recyclate made from post-consumer HDPE.

Contrary to methods which bind the odours by means of additives and enclose them in the regranulate, the Starlinger process removes the substances causing the odours and delivers permanently odour-reduced pellets which do not release unwanted smells in the following production steps.

“Packaging made of HDPE is used for a lot of foods. If, for example, substances from food scraps migrate into the plastic, they can cause unpleasant smells in the recycling process. To avoid this, we use our three-step procedure: It starts with material preparation, followed by highly efficient degassing in the C-VAC module, and is finalized with the thermal after-treatment of the produced regranulate. This method ensures that even deeply embedded odours are removed”, says Paul Niedl, Commercial Head of Starlinger Recycling Technology.