Arla Foods leads HDPE development in injection stretched blow moulding

The company has been working closely with leading machinery suppliers on the technology and has initially focused on developing smaller size bottles.Phil O’Driscoll, Arla’s packaging technologist, says injection stretch blow moulding with HPDE offers many environmental advantages over the more commonly used PET. It has a lower carbon footprint, is fully recyclable and has the potential to incorporate up to 50 per cent recycled plastic.This development will allow Arla to harness all the benefits of the ISBM production process without the high environmental cost usually associated with PET. Phil added that during consumer testing, the appearance of the bottles was very well received. “We are really pushing the boundaries in terms of milk packaging innovation and this option offers consumers an attractive and environmentally friendly solution, making it ideal for added value products such as favoured milk and driving new consumers to the category. The development is ongoing and is one of many new technologies we are exploring as we seek to optimise our packaging portfolio.”