Worcester-based BPI's consumer VMB business has claimed a reduction in cardboard usage of more than 100 tonnes after it switched cores for many of its reels from cardboard to plastic.
The company has started delivering reels of plastic film to customers on re-usable plastic cores after setting up an internal system to use the cores with its sister companies that supply film.
Greenvale AP, one of the UK’s biggest suppliers of potatoes to supermarkets, brands and caterers, is the first customer to use the plastic cores, which have been used up to 50 times in trials, reports PackagingNews.
BPI.consumer VMB environment officer Nick Whyman said the cores, which are produced from recycled plastic by BPI’s recycled products business in Dumfries, brought both environmental and cost benefits.
“The plastic cores cost about four times more than a cardboard core, so the payback is quick,” Whyman said.
BPI’s plastic core project began in May 2009 and was offered to Greenvale, which began trialling the system late in 2009.
Whyman said that other customers were now also showing interest in adopting the system and that Greenvale AP was rolling it out across new lines.
Greenvale AP operations manager Rob Phllips said they are delighted that something as simple as re-using recycled reel cores enables them to divert a significant amount of cardboard from landfill each year.