Sidel’s Actis barrier coating has met and exceeded the criteria for the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) Design for Recyclability Recognition pathway.

Founded over 30 years ago, APR is an international non-profit and the only North American organization focused exclusively on improving recycling for plastics.

APR Design® for Recyclability Recognition is an engineering assessment of the technical compatibility of either a packaging component, assembly of components, or a complete package with today’s plastics recycling processes.

Sidel’s Actis coating has been assessed by an APR Review Committee following independent tests and was evaluated using the most stringent, industry accepted criteria that encompass a wide range of design features affecting plastics recycling to achieve the APR Design for Recyclability mark.

Sidel Actis (Amorphous Carbon Treatment on Internal Surface) is a pioneering plasma coating technology applied inside PET bottles to provide extended shelf life while enhancing significant lightweighting. The coating technology is deposited inside a PET bottle and used to improve barrier protection for packaging carbonated soft drinks (CSDs), beer and oxygen sensitive beverages like juices or teas.

Leading sustainability criteria

“At Sidel we place a high priority on recyclability in designing our packaging material. Ensuring full circularity of our packaging material without compromising on the quality of the post-consumer recycled material,” comments Naima Boutroy, Global Packaging Expert at Sidel.

Actis bottles are already recyclable and approved in the European recycling streams for food grade bottle-to-bottle. The APR Design for Recyclability Recognition is a testament to the Actis bottles’ design for circularity.

Pioneering plasma coating technology

“The Actis plasma coating barrier technology can increase shelf life by up to three times for carbonated products, and up to ten times for oxygen sensitive beverages, depending on the product type, bottle weight and size,” adds Alexandre Huet, Blowing and Coating Product Manager at Sidel.

Actis also achieves lightweighting by reducing the amount of PET material needed in bottle production, while still maintaining the necessary strength and barrier properties for beverages.

For example, a standard 500ml PET bottle for CSD weighing 24g usually achieves a ten-week shelf life but with Actis technology it can achieve an extended 24-week shelf life while saving five grams of PET, which represents over twenty percent of greenhouse gases emissions savings.

Over thirty Actis systems have been introduced globally, accounting for more than five billion bottles produced across all the main beverage categories that require barrier protection.