British company makes first ever 100 percent recycled plastic cups

Invicta Plastics Ltd, the British design and mould specialist that invented the plastic ruler, states it has beaten global competition to create the world’s first rigid, food-safe products from 100 percent recycled plastic bottles (PET), lids and milk cartons (HDPE).

The company says the breakthroughs have taken almost four years of research and millions of pounds of investment in the new technology.

Coca-Cola, a client of Invicta Plastics for over 50 years, is said to be amongst the first brands to test these new products, whilst Coca-Cola Enterprises, Greenpac and retail giant, Asda, are all said to be working with Invicta to explore the potential of these processes for point-of-sale products and merchandise.

CEO of Invicta Group, the Countess of Onslow, said: “Never before have regular plastic drinking bottles, bottle lids and milk cartons been given a new life, such as becoming high quality low cost injection moulded cups, plates and tablewear, toys and marketing products, fashion accessories and socially responsible educational equipment in every colour without some sort of virgin polymer or stabiliser added – until now.

“We trialled and tested hundreds of recycled materials sourced in the UK, Europe and the USA and created two new processes that we have called rPETable and rNEWable.  These processes were developed keeping in pace with the rapid technical improvements in recycling and recycled material production in the last three years.

“It is our mission to work with major brands to spread the word, help protect the world’s natural resources, save our customers and the consumer money and reduce carbon footprints - in many cases by one simple switch: swapping virgin polymers for one of a wide choice of high quality recycled plastics including rPET and rHDPE.”

Invicta says it is the intention that rPETable and rNEWable will grow globally with like-minded partners who work with major brands - and to do this, the company is seeking partners in order to expand.

Liam Knowles, Sales and Marketing Director at Greenpac UK, said: “We were the first to create a product using Invicta’s rPETable process - and now that every test has been passed to prove that these products are rigid, durable and food safe, it’s realistic to say that no business should ever need to use a single virgin polymer again for this type of product.

“This puts Britain years ahead of other injection moulders. The processes make moulding in recycled materials very cost effective and can lower carbon footprints significantly. They also radically reduce resource depletion because they can be recycled time and time again.  We now need more brands – big and small – to commission products and merchandise using this process,” he continued.

With Reckitt Benckiser, Unilever, Hasbro and many major global drinks brands including Guinness among the longest standing clients of Invicta, there are tremendous opportunities to promote rPETable and rNEWable to these brand giants.