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Dow (NYSE: DOW) and Mengniu, China’s leading dairy company, announced the successful commercialization of a collation shrink film made with Dow’s post-consumer recycled (PCR) resins in Mengniu’s product packaging. Amongst the first for the food and beverage industry in Asia Pacific, the newly formulated one-pellet resin is 100% recyclable and will be used in Mengniu’s secondary packaging for dairy products. This collaboration aligns with Dow’s sustainability commitment to stop the waste by enabling 1 million tons of plastic to be collected, reused, or recycled through its direct actions and partnerships by 2030.
Dow, with their strategic recycling partners, utilizes domestic plastic waste collected from milk, water and juice bottles, as well as discarded flexible film within China, and transforms them into PCR resins. Specifically, the PCR resin is incorporated into the core layer of the collation shrink film and performs comparably to conventional options made with virgin resins. With the inclusion of recycled content in secondary packaging, brand owners like Mengniu can significantly reduce carbon emissions and footprint in their value chains while giving a new life to used plastics that would otherwise have become waste.
“The emergence of new end markets for plastic waste helps incentivize collection and recycling, enabling more recycled products to be developed while reducing the amount of plastic entering our environment,” said Bambang Candra, Asia Pacific commercial vice president, Dow Packaging & Specialty Plastics. “Dow is creating purpose for used plastic packaging with our circular economy solutions and by bringing these products to market, our goal is to give plastics a second life and prevent more environmental wastage. We can only achieve this through value-chain collaborations with industry leaders like Mengniu.”
“Following our last partnership between Dow and our premium dairy brand, Shiny Meadow, to construct China’s first ever ‘plastic road’ using recycled milk bottles, this initiative continues our trajectory to contribute to a circular plastics economy and close the loop by working with materials that are sustainable and recyclable,” said Pengcheng Li, vice president, Mengniu Dairy. “Being able to lead the green development in the dairy industry while setting a benchmark for others to follow in terms of sustainability, we hope to further our vision with the support of Dow to uphold environmental responsibility; increase use of recycled plastics, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and address the plastic waste issue in response to growing consumer concern about the environment.”
