Ring Container Technologies, a leader in the plastic container manufacturing industry, today announced that its BarrierGuard® OxygenSmart™ technology has won a 2023 U.S. Plastics Pact Sustainable Packaging Innovation Award for recyclability. This is the second year in a row the company has been recognized by the organization. Ring received an honorable mention in the same category in 2022.

Ring’s BarrierGuard® OxygenSmart™ is designed to protect both product freshness and the environment. Winners were chosen based on the improved environmental impact of the product, the likelihood of commercial viability, and the level of potential impact in moving the industry toward circularity.

“We’re proud to share that 100% of Ring’s product portfolio is recyclable,” said Tim Ferrel, Vice President of Business Development at Ring. “This award reinforces our commitment to creating cost-effective sustainable packaging solutions that are good for business and good for the environment.”

The Sustainable Packaging Innovation Awards was created to showcase innovations that help to keep plastic packaging in the economy and out of the environment and enable progress toward the U.S. Plastics Pact’s four targets, all culminating in 2025.

Prerequisites for entering the awards’ Recyclability category included meeting design for recyclability in U.S. systems, and BarrierGuard® OxygenSmart™ has been designated by How2Recycle® as Widely Recyclable with broad acceptance in curbside programs. It has been formally recognized by the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR), a first for materials of this type. Innovations should also contain no problematic or unnecessary plastic packaging and support the transition from non-recyclable to recyclable.

“Making products recyclable and using post-consumer recycled content in new products are critical elements in a circular economy. Unfortunately, traditional PET oxygen barriers have degraded in the recycling process, leading to lower-quality recycled content that can be challenging for brands to use,” said Emily Tipaldo, Executive Director, U.S. Plastics Pact. “BarrierGuard® OxygenSmart™ does not discolor in the recycling process and received critical guidance recognition from the Association of Plastic Recyclers. The U.S. Plastics Pact is pleased to award this innovative solution that will lead to higher-quality recycled PET, closing the loop on the circular economy.”

In all aspects of its work, the U.S. Plastics Pact aims to ensure that plastics never become waste by eliminating the plastics we don’t need; innovating to ensure that the plastics we do need are reusable, recyclable, or compostable; and circulating all the plastic items we use to keep them in the economy and out of the environment.