SAINT-JEAN-SUR-RICHELIEU, QUE. — Allied Bakeries, a UK-based supplier of baked foods, has introduced new bread bags made by St. Johns Packaging, a manufacturer of flexible packaging products. The new bags feature a certified circular polyethylene (PE) resin grade from SABIC, incorporating 30% content of recycled feedstock from post-consumer waste.

The new bags will be used in the packaging of Allied Bakeries Kingsmill No Crusts 50/50.

Allied Bakeries, St. Johns Packaging and SABIC began development of the new bags back in November 2020. A trial phase was completed in May 2021 at the St. Johns Packaging production site in China, and Kingsmill introduced the bags made from PE film with certified circular polymers content to UK stores this month.

According to the companies, advanced recycling is used to convert used and mixed plastic into pyrolysis oil, which is then used in the production of new polymers with the same purity and quality as traditional virgin plastics.

“For such solutions to work in the long term, the partners in the material value chain must closely collaborate,” said Abdullah Al-Otaibi, general manager, ETP & Market Solutions at SABIC. “With our TRUCIRCLE program, we are pushing for innovative business models to transform our industry from a linear to a circular one and help prevent the valuable material of end-of-life plastic applications from being wasted. Within a relatively short time, this remarkable joint project has shown what can be achieved to make this vision come true if all players work together to maximize post-consumer plastic recycling and sustainability.”

SABIC said its circular materials are produced using mass balance accounting according to the International Sustainability & Carbon Certification (ISCC) PLUS program, which follows a set of predefined and transparent rules for tracking the material flow across complex supply chains from the feedstock to the final application.

“At Kingsmill we’re fully committed to finding ways to address the plastic challenge that all food producers are facing,” said Chris Craig, joint managing director at Allied Bakeries. “Of course, this is just one of our products, but it’s an important step that shows how food manufacturers and packaging suppliers are working together to bring about much needed change. We really need more soft plastics to be recycled so that there is more material available for projects like this. We want everyone in the UK to know that bread bags can and should be recycled by taking them to larger stores, but what we really need is for the UK government to bring forward the date when soft plastics like bread bags can be recycled as part of home curbside collections.”

Marc Leclair, president of St. Johns Packaging, said the company is committed to developing sustainable and economically viable packaging solutions for the baking industry, while at the same time reducing food and plastic waste.

“The incorporation of recycled content has been a key area of focus over the past few years,” Mr. Leclair said. “By supporting the circular economy, giving value to plastics and promoting its use into other packaging products, we hope to contribute efforts to tackle the enormous challenge of improving recycling rates and finding solutions to the plastic waste issue. We welcome the advanced recycling route offered by SABIC as an opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to the circularity of plastics. In collaboration with strong global partners, this breakthrough project is demonstrating the feasibility of reusing plastic waste in safe food-grade packaging rather than losing its value to landfill or incineration.”

SABIC’ s certified circular polymers form part of its TRUCIRCLE portfolio and services for circular solutions that also include design for recyclability, mechanically recycled products, certified renewable products from bio-based feedstock and closed loop initiatives to recycle plastic back into high-quality applications and help prevent valuable used plastics from becoming waste.