Retran was introduced in 2018 with a minimum recycled content of 70% which comes from post-consumer waste. This product has been adopted by most Bell customers.  

Managing director, Peter Lennie, says: “We have been absolutely delighted with the take up by Bell customers for Retran.  With no reduction in strength the new film has excellent optical clarity and the switch from the original Virgin PET formulation to the recycled version has been easy”.

Bell confirms there is no impact on cost, and the performance of the film in assembly is equal to normal production. An added advantage of Retran is that it is suitable for kerbside collection and is 100% recyclable.

Discussions with major customers and High Street retailers confirm that the way forward for plastic packaging is to recycle wherever possible.  Bell Packaging recognises that this is proving difficult for many consumers as they don’t know which packaging can be recycled.

The proposed streamlining on the types of plastic available is supported by Bell and, to ensure that the packaging supplied by the company is easily identified, it has introduced a number of initiatives:

Tubing

To help the end customers identify the recycling nature of this product all Retran products can be embossed with a recyclable logo.

Folding boxes

Containing a minimum 70% recycled content these boxes are easy to assemble and have excellent optical qualities.  Here again we recommend that any new designs of box are identified using a recyclable logo.

Inserts

Made using 100% recycled PET all new designs of formed insert will incorporate the recycled PET logo.

End caps 

These are made using various polymers depending on the application. Bell’s production is investing in new machinery to enable identification of each component using the appropriate recycled logo.

The move to identify the types of plastic being used will enable consumers and recyclers identify and separate the components easily.

Lennie adds: “Bell is committed to the recycling of all plastics. Currently this can be done locally where facilities exist; however with the initiatives announced by DEFRA and new recycling facilities planned by BIFFA the opportunity for the UK to become Europe’s leading recycling nation is too good an opportunity to miss.”

“Plastics that cannot be easily recycled can be reprocessed into so many other uses such as polymer to make garden furniture, housing products and more recently new road surfaces.”

For samples and more information on these initiatives please contact the Bell offices or email [email protected].