The world’s first fully fully renewable package has passed its test with Finnish dairy Valio.
“[It’s] the pack that grows back,” stated Charles Brand, executive vice president of product management & commercial operations for Tetra Pak.
“Tetra Rex Bio-based offers customers a fully renewable package made from materials that can be traced back to their plant-based source. It’s good for the environment, and it’s excellent for communicating with consumers … the product they actually hold in their hands is derived entirely from plants.”
The Finnish dairy put Tetra Rex Bio-based into test in late January.
Valio has been selling its Valio Eila brand of lactose free semi-skimmed milk drink in Tetra Rex Bio-based for the past three months and now plans to use the fully renewable package for other products in its range.
At the same time, the company has also decided to use Tetra Pak’s 100% bio based closures for all of its gable-top packages.
“After all of the hard work and significant investment that has gone into bringing this package to market, it is hugely rewarding to get such a positive response from both Valio and their consumers,” Brand stated.
Tetra Rex Bio-based is now available in a range of sizes, from 250ml to 2000ml, for all chilled milk specifications. The package will soon be used by more customers in Europe, and the company has begun discussions about launching it with dairy companies in other parts of the world.
Tetra Rex Bio-based is manufactured solely from a combination of plastics derived from sugar cane and paperboard. Like the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified paperboard, the plastics can be traced back to their origin. This provides the package with the highest category of bio-based certification from Vincotte, the internationally-recognised assessment body.
The bio-based plastics used by Tetra Pak are produced by Brazilian chemical company, Braskem, which sources all of its feedstock from sugar cane grown on degraded pastures.
Tetra Rex Bio-based scooped a Gold Award at the Pro2Pac Excellence Awards in the UK last week for being the world’s first carton made entirely from plant-based, renewable packaging materials.
The 100% renewable package can be identified by the words, “Tetra Rex Bio-based”, printed on the gable of the package.
