Lidl, Tesco, Waitrose, Greggs, Morrisons, M&S, and Asda have switched to Greiner Packaging UK & Ireland’s K3 r100 self-separating packaging for their own-brand instant porridge pots, aiming to increase recycling efficiency across waste management systems.

An evolution of the original K3 cardboard-plastic cup, K3 r100 is designed to enhance recyclability by allowing materials to separate automatically before reaching near-infrared (NIR) detection at recycling facilities. Greiner Packaging says the integration of NIR technology ensures proper material detection and sorting, with cardboard and plastic correctly assigned to their respective recycling streams.

Rachel Sheldon, sustainability and innovation manager at Greiner Packaging UK & Ireland, says that the food retailers “have all moved their successful ready-to-eat instant porridge brands to our increasingly popular K3 r100 packaging solution.”

Improving recyclability

Developed to reduce plastic usage, K3 features a tear tab for intuitive separation by consumers.

“The cardboard wrap and plastic packaging separate from each other without human intervention during the waste disposal process. This means that achieving a high recyclability rate does not depend on proper separation by the end consumer — which was the case with all previous K3 packaging — as it now happens completely independently before the used packaging reaches the recycling facility,” explains Sheldon.

“We are excited to see so many UK retailers realizing the benefits of our self-separating packaging solution, following Symington’s, which became the first UK food producer to move over to K3 r100 for its Oatburst instant porridge brand last July.”

Symington’s is the first UK company to adopt Greiner Packaging’s improved K3 r100 cup, featuring a tear-tab cardboard-plastic design, for its Asian flavors brand.