PP Bottle Cap Recycling Process Obtains FDA Approval

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently issued a No Objection Letter (NOL) for the bottle-to-bottle recycling process of polypropylene caps on the Starlinger recoSTAR dynamic recycling system.

NOL is suitable for the manufacture of beverage bottle caps under conditions of C to H. Therefore, caps made from 100% post-consumer recycled polypropylene can also be used for hot filling applications.

recoSTAR Clean technology transforms PP beverage bottle caps into high-quality rPP, which can be used in food contact packaging at levels up to 100%.

Reduce odor

The approved recycling process machine configuration includes a recoSTAR dynamic recycling extruder equipped with a C-VAC degassing module for efficient degassing, and a PCUplus unit at the end of the recycling process. The latter ensures a permanent reduction of odors and completes the removal of volatile organic compounds, which is an important step in producing food-grade recyclates from post-consumer plastics.

"In the beverage industry, PP and HDPE are the most commonly used materials for plastic bottle caps," said Paul Niedl, Commercial Director of Starlinger Recycling Technology. "As early as 2021, we received FDA LNO for our HDPE bottle-to-bottle and cap-to-bottle recycling processes. Now, we can also close the loop with polypropylene beverage bottle caps, so they can return to the recycling stream and be reused without downcycling."