Originally published by comPETence Magazine
The constantly shifting weather can degrade sunny skies into storm clouds in a single minute. Wind gusts tear at the cliff wall. Some steps are across bottomless gaps onto nearly sheer rock face. One wrong move sends you freefalling — down, down, down. The elevation is past 20,000 feet, but you keep going beyond thinning air and labored breathing because the view is worth the climb.
There’s no doubt that mountain climbing isn’t for everybody. And people who work in the packaging industry would probably make good mountain climbers, because this industry isn’t for the faint of heart. That’s especially true for the sustainable PET packaging industry.
We all know well the shifting regulatory environment. Every link in the packaging value chain is grappling with change because packaging regulations in the EU and other countries are tightening to force a circular economy. We need more rPET in food and beverage packaging, and we need to use fewer fossil resources for new materials. Regulations are requiring it, surveys and buying behaviors are telling us that consumers are demanding it, and we all want to do the right thing for the planet. The hard reality, however, is that the quality of mechanically recycled rPET fluctuates and degrades over time, impacting color, mechanical properties and hydrolysis resistance.
As a veteran of the food and beverage packaging industry, Dovydas Stulpinas knows this climb and dizzying view well. He is CEO for Doloop*, a Lithuania-based company with decades of experience in preforms and PET bottles. In recent years, Doloop has established a reputation for pursuing regenerative PET packaging solutions.
“I’m proud of the strides our company has made toward more sustainable packaging, and for that matter, I’m proud of the sustainability efforts by brands and converters across the industry,” Stulpinas said. “But here’s the reality: We can’t achieve a circular economy for beverage packaging without new recycling innovations, because mechanical rPET alone can’t meet circularity and quality goals. Our industry must have a new solution. Doloop has found an innovation partner in Eastman. Together, we have a beverage packaging solution that can help us take that next step toward a circular economy, and we look forward to showcasing it at drinktec 2025.”
Eastman’s solution: Renew recycled PET with no compromises
At drinktec , Doloop and Eastman will showcase a 100% rPET beverage bottle** produced from Eastar™ Renew EN031, a chemically recycled PET from Eastman that performs like virgin resin. This collaboration not only signals what’s next in sustainable beverage packaging but also offers brands a scalable path to 100% recycled content that works in real-world systems.
Eastman is a world leader in recycling innovations that can help build a more sustainable future, one where plastic waste could become a thing of the past. A Fortune 500 company, U.S.-based Eastman operates one of the world’s largest polyester chemical recycling facilities at its headquarters in Kingsport, Tennessee.
Through a recycling innovation that uses methanolysis technology, Eastman is able to process complex polyester waste — such as colored PET packaging, carpet fiber facing and thermoforms — that would otherwise be incinerated or landfilled. Because of the complex plastics that can contaminate the PET waste stream and the complexity of sorting, much polyester isn’t viable or economically feasible for mechanical recyclers to handle.
Eastman refers to its process, which uses methanolysis technology, as molecular recycling because recycling is done at the molecular level.
Eastar Renew EN031 is part of Eastman’s family of Renew PET. Through methanolysis, Eastman can process hard-to-recycle polyester an infinite number of times with no loss in quality, ensuring quality rPET for years to come.
For sustainably minded beverage companies, Eastar Renew EN031 is a breakthrough that delivers the attributes brands need:
- Food-safe rPET that delivers clarity, purity and color on par with virgin PET
- Regulatory compliance with a sustainable material that meets EU regulations for food contact and safety, contributing to brand reputation and consumer confidence
- Processibility, as Eastar Renew EN031 requires no retooling and has consistent yields through standard injection molding processes. Because of the technical readiness of Eastar Renew, Doloop can convert the Eastman material into fully approved, bottler-ready preforms.
The necessity and value of collaboration
Eastman began operation of its molecular recycling facility in early 2024 and is partnering with dozens of leading brands to build a recycling system for the modern age. With a heritage more than 100 years old and decades of history in methanolysis recycling, which it pioneered in the 1980s, Eastman is a world leader in the production of Eastman Renew recycled polymers and other specialty materials. Eastman’s commitment to tackling the plastic waste crisis and bringing circular materials into the mainstream led to the development of Eastman Renew materials with certified recycled content.*
“Innovation has positioned Eastman to lead, but collaboration is essential for plastic packaging to become circular,” said Eric Dehouck, Managing Director for Eastman’s circular economy platform. The Doloop relationship illustrates how supplier partnerships play a key role in preparing a market to address not only existing regulations but also those on the horizon.
“Doloop is a wonderful partner that has demonstrated the qualities we value and the world needs: collaborative, sustainability-focused and forwardthinking,” Isaac Rosenberg, Sales Manager Circular Packaging, EASTMAN, said. “No one company can do this alone. No one recycling technology is enough with the complexity of today’s plastic waste streams. And that underscores a very important point. Molecular recycling, or chemical recycling, isn’t a replacement for mechanical recycling. We’re looking to complement and work alongside mechanical recycling. The world needs both.”
Marius Gembutas, Head of Business Development of Doloop, points to a specific example in Scandinavia, where Doloop has partnered extensively. Sweden has one of the world’s most advanced deposit return systems, operated by Returpack, with around 87% of PET bottles collected in 2023.
However, a 2025 report from RISE Research Institutes of Sweden /1/ raised issues. About one-third of PET bottles in Sweden currently contain 100% recycled PET, which negatively impacts the quality of the material.
In the study, Returpack observed that optical quality issues — darkening, yellowing, and a decline in transparency — began to appear in the PET stream, even with only approximately 33% of bottles in the system made from 100% rPET. Though these observed changes were cosmetic, they signaled early-stage degradation that can impact brand perception and value of the recycling stream. Sweden provides a good example for the EU to consider for the impact of 65% minimum recycled content standards on rPET quality.
Again, collaboration is the answer. Launching Renew PET will improve the quality of the rPET stream, and a solution that combines material from both technologies would benefit material innovators like Eastman, molders, brands and consumers. A mix of up to 80% rPET from mechanical recycling with at least 20% rPET from chemical recycling would be ideal, Gembutas said.
In partnership with Eastman, Doloop plans to launch a pilot program of Renew PET in Scandinavia, with production trials followed by technical validation in commercial beverage applications.
“We’re excited to partner with Doloop to showcase Eastman Renew materials in a region where deposit-return systems are strong and consumer expectations are high, because we’re confident we can meet those expectations,” Rosenberg said.
Doloop’s Gembutas is excited to prove that solutions the packaging industry needs are here — and they’re real.
“What begins in Scandinavia isn’t meant to stay in Scandinavia,” Gembutas said. “The products we’re launching with Eastman are designed with scalability in mind to serve as a replicable model for circular packaging across Europe.
“In the meantime, we look forward to drinktec. We invite everyone to stop by and see the bottle’s clarity and feel, and Eastman experts will be there with us to answer questions about Renew PET. We feel this is more than a product launch; this is a collaboration to show the industry what’s possible. This is an opportunity for every brand, packaging engineer and sustainability officer to see that chemically recycled content equivalent to virgin is here, proven and ready to scale.”
/1/www.pantamera.nu/globalassets/documents/ report-recycling-of-pet-bottles-v2-2023-11-03_ signed.pdf * DOLOOP operated as Putokšnis until 26 November 2021 ** Via ISCC certified mass balance allocation
Doloop @ drinktec: Hall C6, 242