Aimplas develops new plastic containers for pre-cooked food
February 25, 2011
The technological Institute of plastics (Aimplas) is developing plastic packaging for pre-cooked food safer for human health and ecological, through the Cobapack project. This project has been presented in the framework of the fair Packaging Innovations 2011 which ended yesterday in Barcelona.
The main advantages of these new containers are the use of new technology based on the co-inyección. This, according to Quique Benavent, project coordinator, "can revolutionize the process of manufacture of the packaging because halved the processes necessary to produce them." "This is a cost savings of up to 14% for the manufacturing company".
The new bottles are made with renewable materials such as starch, which made barrier to oxygen not pot the plastic and, therefore, allow the food they contain to last much longer in perfect condition.
The project aims to also reduce the amount of waste that is generated in the manufacturing of plastic containers. To achieve this is starch, which besides having barrier properties similar to traditional materials, according to Aimplas has a greater potential for recyclability, which will mean an improvement in terms of sustainability and a reduction of the environmental impact of the plastic container after use.
The Cobapack project is funded by the European Commission under the seventh framework programme and it involved 6 small business, a large enterprise end user and three research centres in 5 countries (Bulgaria, Slovenia, Spain, Italy and England).
