K3® r100 – the self-separating sustainable packaging solution!
K3®, Greiner Packaging's innovative cardboard-plastic packaging solution was first launched in 1982, during an oil crisis, to use less plastic, and is now used by thousands of brands worldwide, who love its ever-evolving sustainability credentials and effective and efficient performance.
Greiner Packaging UK & Ireland (GPUK) first produced K3® at its Dungannon facility in 2007, following the acquisition of Wilsanco.
Designed for recycling, the adaptable, popular and successful K3® cardboard-plastic combination is one of the most sustainable packaging solutions on the market. It reduces plastic consumption, while creating eye-catching packaging designed to maximize marketing opportunities. Thanks to its reduced plastic content, the K3® packaging solution has an improved CO2 footprint and it can be recycled efficiently, as the cardboard and plastic can be easily separated.
Cardboard-plastic combinations have a number of positive attributes when it comes to sustainability. The cardboard wrap (made from Forest Stewardship Council approved material), lends sturdiness to the lightweight white or transparent plastic cup – which is unprinted, leading to high quality recyclates – so that it can be produced with particularly thin walls. This wrap features a new tear-tab which makes separation intuitive and much easier for consumers to separate the cardboard sleeve from the lightweight plastic cup, to enable efficient recycling.
Enter K3® r100 – the self-separating solution
GPUK has now introduced a solution in which the cardboard wrap separates itself from the plastic cup during the waste collection process – before the packaging reaches the near-infrared detection (NIR) system at the recycling facility – leading to proper detection, sorting and recycling. K3® r100 therefore enables cardboard and plastic to be assigned to the correct material streams during the initial sorting process, before being recycled.
Due to the innovative design of K3® r100 packaging, the plastic part and cardboard segment get separated by friction and pressure during the waste collecting and sorting process. So, even if the consumer disposes of the packaging as a whole, the materials will separate themselves during collection and transport.
The best-case scenario is still for consumers to separate the cardboard wrap from the plastic cup before disposing of the parts properly, so the new K3® r100 solution still features the innovative tear-tab.
Cyclos-HTP has given K3® r100 (with a standard aluminum lid) a recyclability rating of higher than 90%*, and RecyClass has rated K3® r100 with Class A**.
Investing in recycled materials
In 2022, GPUK invested over £3.7M in a new PET decontamination and extrusion line to enable the use of more recycled materials in its market-leading packaging ranges. The European Food Safety Authority has approved the decontamination process to recycle post-consumer PET into food contact materials.
Using the new EFSA-approved in-house r-PET capability, a wide range of 100% r-PET K3® products are now available from GPUK.
GPUK is the first packaging manufacturer in Northern Ireland to gain the Sustainably Sourced Plastics Certification, and the first Greiner Packaging factory in the world to be awarded Forest Stewardship Council (FSC®) Chain of Custody certification.