Leeds manufacturer becomes first UK company to sell 'Breakdown PET' products

Leeds-based LVF has become one of the first packaging companies in the UK to manufacture and sell products made from Breakdown PET.

Breakdown PET is a biodegradable and fully recyclable plastic material, designed to quickly, naturally and safely decompose in landfill.

LVF (Leeds Vacuum Formers) added Breakdown PET to its offering in late 2018, and Podpak Ltd - a single-serve specialist from Bath - has made the switch to it.

Nigel Coates, managing director of LVF, said: “The demonisation of plastic packaging over the last few months has been extreme to say the very least, but like the vast majority in our industry, we’ve been striving towards delivering environmentally friendly solutions for many years.

“We recycle close to 100 per cent of all waste we produce, and have done for as long as I remember; and prior to the introduction of Breakdown PET, we used rPET, which is fully recyclable and contains a minimum of 80 per cent post-consumer waste.”

The decision to investigate and then introduce an alternative to rPET grew from LVFs concerns about the amount of plastic products that still end up in landfill.

Gemma Earl, Podpak’s commercial director, added: “We purchase bespoke, multi-cavity thermoformed trays from LVF. These were previously made using rPET and were fully recyclable.

“The problem though is that a significant percentage of plastic waste still ends up in landfill, so when Nigel and his team from LVF introduced BreakdownPET to us, we were eager to make the switch to a material that really can rectify a major environmental issue - even though it costs us a little more to buy in.”

Podpak was established by Nick and Gemma Earl in 2016 after they noticed many of the traditional packaging methods were not fit for the smaller recipe items included within the single serve meals that were growing in popularity.

It has since extended the use of pods to include everything from samplers for exhibitions to single serve protein powders for gym chains.