Activity Report 2023

Playing an essential role in the fight against food waste and climate change, in 2023 thermoformed PET packaging continued to be the most widespread option for all those food products that need exigent conservation conditions. According to the “PET Market in Europe State of Play 2024. Production, Collection & Recycling Data 2022” report, 1,07 million tons of thermoformed PET were placed on the EU27+UK market in 2022.

Our RETRAY certification scheme is not only the best partner for companies to comply with the packaging and packaging waste legal framework in the short term, but also a key tool in the mid long term for boosting the recycling infrastructure needed in Europe for making all the PET thermoformed packaging recyclable in 2030.

For those reasons, in 2023 the RETRAY certification scheme was consolidated as the unique and most useful tool for companies in Europe to demonstrate, through an independent third party, tray-to-tray circularity and the incorporation of the total amount of recycled content in their products.

More than 70 processes and products were audited in 2023 by Certification Bodies, accredited under the ISO/IEC 17065 standard by an Accreditation Body member of EA (European Cooperation for Accreditation) or IAF (International Accreditation Forum), and authorized by Ecosense Foundation to operate in the RETRAY scheme.

The facilities audited in 2023 represented more than 50% of the PET thermoform European market production, consolidating RETRAY as the preferred certification scheme by the sector to ensure traceability in the tray-to-tray circularity. These companies, already certified with the RETRAY Process, rely on RETRAY as well to certify recycled content on more than 40 Product Formats according to the EN 15343 standard.

By the end of 2023, Christian Crépet and Ana Fernández were incorporated in the Board of Trustees at Ecosense Foundation. They will both participate in the Management Committee of the RETRAY scheme to provide their deep knowledge of the PET and thermoforming sector to ensure the best decision-making and impartiality from the main control body of the certification scheme.

All these strong pillars will allow Ecosense Foundation to start a strategic agreement in 2024 with Petcore Europe, in order to be a reference and reliable certification scheme for their members under the Tray Circularity Evaluation Platform (TCEP) framework of Petcore.

Activity Report 2023