Unilever partnered with Indorama Ventures and Ioniqa, a spin-off of the Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands, to pioneer a new technology that converts Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) waste into virgin material for use in the food packaging.

Ioniqa developed a technology that can turn any PET waste into virgin grade transparent material. The technology has successfully passed its pilot phase and is now moving toward industrial-scale testing.

This development takes non-recycled PET waste, such as colored bottles, and breaks it down to the base molecule level, while separating the color and other contaminants. The molecules are converted back to PET, which is equal to virgin grade quality at the Indorama facility.

If its success is proven on an industrial scale, in the future it will be possible to convert all PET back into high-quality packaging for food use. The three partner companies believe that this fully circular solution could lead to an industry transformation, as the new technology can be repeated indefinitely.