Future of plastics: 100% circulair
Hordijk sees one future for plastic: as a 100% circular product. Where the recycled product is indistinguishable from new. Our guiding principle is 'tray to tray'. So that every used Hordijk salad tray can become the same salad tray again.
Where food packaging twenty years ago was often made of polystyrene, Hordijk has switched almost completely to PET. And the recycled variant - rPET - is becoming increasingly popular. The transition to rPET is a spearhead for us. We are looking beyond the recycling of soft drinks bottles. Our aim: to recycle all the PET in household waste.
MDS rPET
Hordijk works together with a waste processing organisation that sustainably separates PET from plastic waste from Amsterdam and Rotterdam. They filter the PET material from plastic waste streams and process it into a recyclate for Hordijk and others. In this way, we are increasingly closing the circle.
To effectively separate the PET in waste, our partner uses a new method: magnetic density separation (MDS). This produces a purer stream of rPET than other techniques. From the recovered plastic, we make high-quality and food-safe (EFSA-approved) packaging. We call this rPET stream MDS rPET.
"Our MDS rPET is made from household waste".
OCEAN rPET
Our OCEAN rPET is made from litter (especially PET bottles) collected from the sea and beaches along the Mediterranean coast. Another party collects and sorts the PET. We receive it as chips. We are the first party to use it for food-safe trays.
Recovering and reusing
We currently use a lot of recycled material that does not come from our own stream. We want to change this, because we are striving for circularity. That is why we are working with a partner on 'watermarks' for our packaging. We place a unique code in a dish/tray. This code is recognised and removed by a detection system during waste processing. This gives circularity a big boost.
The Clean North
Together with various parties, we have started Clean North, an initiative in which we are realising a facility where we can recycle PET 100%: chemical recycling. Simply put: in addition to the shredding, washing and remelting of rPET - the mechanical recycling - we add an extra step. In chemical recycling, the molten PET is still filtered and returned to its basic form.
Looking ahead
Hordijk uses rPET in various ways. The material can be combined in many ways, depending on the customer's wishes. Recycling techniques are constantly improving. The market is growing and new innovations are being introduced. Hordijk follows developments closely and is itself a trendsetter in this respect. We aim for 100% circularity.
Technical director Fons Groenen:
"Optimally recyclable plastic packaging" "All our plastic packaging is mono products," explains technical director Fons Groenen. "They are therefore made entirely of the same material. "That is important for recycling. An example: a cardboard container with a plastic coating seems more durable than plastic. But that's not true, it's not mono. If the consumer does not separate it, it will not be reused. There is still a lot of profit to be made here.