CO2-PET wins WorldStar Award

The Mibelle Group wins the international packaging prize WorldStar Award in the three categories Household, Health & Personal care and Packaging Material for its CO₂-PET innovation. The project team received the prestigious award on 4 May at the award ceremony in Milan, Italy.

PET from CO₂ Recycling is a joint project of the Migros Industrie. It involves the production of packaging with PET, up to 30% of which is obtained from CO₂ recycling and would otherwise be released into the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas. The Migros Industrie currently uses CO₂ PET in packaging for glass cleaners, tooth rinses and liquid soaps, as well as in bottles of smoothies, multivitamin juice and iced tea. The innovation was launched in 2021 and has already won the German Packaging Award 2021 in gold. Now the Mibelle Group also wins the WorldStar Award in three categories. Every year since 1970, the World Packaging Organisation (WPO) has awarded packaging innovations from all over the world. This year, 440 projects from 37 countries were submitted.

Award-winning pioneering work in sustainability

Susanne Heldmaier, Strategic Lead of Basic Research & Technical Innovation at the Mibelle Group, is delighted about the award: "With the environmentally friendly PET bottles made from CO₂ recycling, we are creating a sustainable alternative to conventional plastic in the Migros Industrie and thus offering an ecologically sensible complement to r-PET. I am very proud that our pioneering work has now also been recognised with the WorldStar Award."

New PET bottles from CO₂ emissions

CO₂ enters the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas in many places. With the CO₂ recycling technology of the start-up LanzaTech, it is converted into alcohol and forms the raw material for many other materials, e.g. plastic packaging. Plastic packaging made from CO₂ recycling reduces petroleum consumption, binds greenhouse gas and, unlike bioplastics, can be integrated into existing recycling cycles. An independent life cycle assessment confirms that CO₂-PET has a significantly lower ecological footprint than conventionally produced PET and is thus a sensible complement to the recycled PET in our bottles.