Introduction: Turning Circular Ambition into Certified, Commercial Reality

For brands evaluating recycled content in primary packaging, the core question is simple: can high-quality rPCR deliver near-virgin performance with food-grade safety at scale? Berry Global, a full-spectrum packaging leader in the United States and globally, approaches this challenge through vertical integration and multi-material expertise—hard plastic containers, flexible films, nonwovens, and closures—paired with a rigorous sustainability roadmap. Under Impact 2025, Berry targets 100% reusable, recyclable, or compostable products, Scope 1+2 carbon neutrality by 2030, and ≥30% recycled content across products by 2030. The technical linchpin enabling these goals is Berry’s Super Clean process for rPCR, validated for food contact via FDA Letters of No Objection (LNO).

This article provides an engineering-level review of Berry’s rPCR performance and safety data, grounded in ASTM testing, and contextualizes that data with large-scale commercial deployment (Dove) and a balanced look at the rPCR performance controversy. It also frames how Berry’s vertical integration—from resin through conversion, decoration, and assembly—helps brands engineer reliable packaging and accelerate circular adoption.

The rPCR Performance Controversy: What Really Determines Quality

Debate persists: does rPCR underperform virgin plastics in strength, clarity, barrier, and safety? The balanced conclusion is that process quality determines rPCR quality. Low-quality rPCR produced via minimal cleaning and mixed streams can indeed exhibit color shifts, odor, and reduced mechanical properties. In contrast, Berry’s Super Clean rPCR consistently reaches ≥99.9% purity, earning FDA food-contact approval and showing performance deltas under 10% versus virgin materials in standardized tests.

• Concerns acknowledged: Potential contamination risks, batch variability, and color shifts exist with inadequately cleaned or mixed-source rPCR.
• Berry’s evidence-based position: With Super Clean, Berry’s rPCR meets food-grade safety and delivers near-virgin mechanical performance, validated by third-party ASTM and FDA tests and billions of commercial units in market.

In short, the gap is not inherent to recycled content; it’s driven by the rigor of feedstock control and decontamination technology.

ASTM D2463 and Companion Tests: What the Data Shows

Independent, ASTM-certified laboratory testing in April 2024 compared Berry’s 50% rPET 500 ml carbonated beverage bottle to a 100% virgin PET benchmark, both at 23°C. The methods included internal pressure burst, drop performance, oxygen transmission, and an FDA migration protocol for food-contact safety.

1) Burst Strength (ASTM D2463)

• Berry 50% rPET: Average 14.2 bar, SD 0.8 bar, minimum 12.5 bar
• Virgin PET: Average 15.1 bar, SD 0.6 bar, minimum 13.8 bar
• Interpretation: Berry’s rPET is ~6% lower than virgin but comfortably exceeds typical commercial minimums (≥10 bar). Engineering margin remains robust for mainstream beverage applications.

2) Drop Test (1.5 m, full, capped)

• Berry 50% rPET: 96% intact (48/50), two fractures at the base
• Virgin PET: 98% intact (49/50), one fracture at the base
• Interpretation: A 2% delta that stays within common commercial acceptance thresholds (≥95% intact), with failure modes consistent and manageable via base design optimization.

3) Oxygen Permeability (ASTM F1927, 24 h, 23°C, 50% RH)

• Berry 50% rPET: 0.13 cc/bottle/day
• Virgin PET: 0.11 cc/bottle/day
• Interpretation: Berry’s value is 18% higher but remains under typical carbonated beverage targets (<0.15 cc/bottle/day). Barrier adequacy is retained, with options to fine-tune via coatings or multi-layer strategies.

4) FDA Migration Test (3% acetic acid, 10 days, 40°C)

• Berry 50% rPET: 3.2 ppm total migrants
• Virgin PET: 2.8 ppm
• Interpretation: Both results are well under the <10 ppm threshold. Berry’s Super Clean rPET maintains food-contact safety margins, corroborated by FDA LNO approvals.

ASTM lab conclusion: “Berry 50% rPET bottle performance differs by less than 10% from virgin PET and fully meets commercial and food-contact requirements.” Operationally, this means brands can qualify Berry rPCR for mainstream beverage packaging with standard design safeguards.

Inside Super Clean: How Berry Engineers Food-Grade rPCR

Berry’s Super Clean process is a multi-stage decontamination sequence purpose-built for food-grade recycled polymers:

• Controlled feedstock: Predominantly post-consumer PET beverage bottles (PCR) with select production scrap (PIR), tightly segregated to avoid mixed polymers.
• Intensive washing: Sorting, crushing, label removal, hot-wash, and rinses geared to strip adhesives, colorants, and residues.
• High-temperature treatment and vacuum degassing: Thermal steps (up to ~220°C) and vacuum processes remove volatile contaminants and reduce oligomeric residues.
• FDA LNO-qualified purity: ≥99.9% purity, validated in a controlled QA loop; each lot is independently tested against food-contact standards.
• Performance blending: rPET co-polymer blending (e.g., 50:50) optimized to balance mechanical strength, barrier, clarity, and processability.

Result: predictable mechanical properties and low migration profiles aligned with food-contact norms, enabling performance-close-to-virgin outcomes across common bottle formats. Similar rigor is applied to rPE and rPP solutions used in personal care and food containers, with designs tailored by application risk and regulatory guardrails.

Commercial Validation at Scale: Dove’s 100% rPCR Transition

Berry’s rPCR performance is proven not only in the lab but across global supply chains. In partnership with Unilever’s Dove brand, Berry moved from 25% rPCR HDPE (2019) to 50% (2021), 75% (2022), and ultimately 100% rPCR (2023–2024) for 400 ml bottles, including Ocean Bound Plastic sourced and processed via Super Clean steps.

• Scale: 5-year collaboration covering 80+ countries; by 2024, 80% of Dove’s global volume utilized 100% rPCR bottles—~800 million units annually.
• Quality: Drop test pass rates remained ≥95%; consumer studies found 85% could not distinguish rPCR from virgin bottles; complaint rates stayed under 0.01%.
• Environmental impact: 120,000 tonnes of rPCR used cumulatively (2019–2024), equivalent to ~6 billion plastic bottles recovered, eliminating an estimated 276,000 tonnes of CO2 versus virgin baseline calculations.
• Supply assurance: Zero stockouts across 5 years and ~4 billion bottles supplied, underscoring Berry’s vertical integration and planning discipline.

For brand owners, the Dove case demonstrates that 100% rPCR HDPE can be engineered, validated, and scaled without compromising core performance requirements or supply stability. Labeling strategies (“Made with 100% Recycled Plastic”) further bridge the consumer trust gap and reinforce sustainability narratives.

Quality Assurance, Traceability, and Design-for-rPCR

Berry’s quality system builds confidence for technical teams and procurement alike:

• Lot-by-lot verification: FDA-aligned migration tests, purity checks, and mechanical property audits ensure food-contact compliance and consistency.
• Traceability: Digital records connect rPCR lots to source and process conditions; non-conforming batches are rejected at intake.
• Vertical integration: In-house resin handling and conversion methods (blow molding, injection molding, extrusion) coupled with downstream decoration and assembly reduce variability and cycle time.

Practical design guidelines for rPCR include:

• Geometry tuning: Reinforce base and shoulder zones to accommodate small mechanical deltas (e.g., 6% lower burst strength) while maintaining target mass.
• Barrier strategy: For higher carbonation or oxygen-sensitive products, consider coatings or co-ex structures to offset the ~18% oxygen permeability difference versus virgin PET.
• Color management: Accept subtle grayscale shifts at higher rPCR loadings or utilize multi-layer structures (outer aesthetic layer, inner virgin layer, middle barrier) to balance optics and recycled content goals.

Addressing Cost and the Hidden ROI

While rPCR often carries a premium versus virgin resins, Berry’s scale and integration help mitigate total cost of ownership:

• Market premiums: rPET and rPE commonly price at 20–50% above virgin, driven by collection, cleaning, and policy-driven demand.
• Berry’s cost levers: Large-volume contracts, multi-year sourcing, and conversion efficiency anchored by vertical integration routinely reduce end-to-end packaging costs by 15–20% versus fragmented sourcing.
• Hidden ROI: Regulatory compliance (e.g., EU PPWR trajectories), brand equity gains, and measurable CO2 reductions create value beyond resin price—often offsetting premiums through increased demand and reduced risk of non-compliance penalties.

In the Dove program, per-unit cost increases were contained, evolving from about +$0.02 at 25% rPCR to ~+$0.03 at 100% rPCR, with brand acceptance and consumer willingness to pay for sustainable packaging improving over time.

What This Means for Packaging Teams

For packaging engineers and procurement leaders, Berry Global’s rPCR platform offers demonstrable safety and performance backed by third-party tests and large-scale commercial deployment. Decisions can be made with confidence when the following pillars are in place:

• Evidence-based qualification: Use ASTM and FDA migration data to calibrate specifications and set acceptance criteria that reflect real-world deltas (<10%).
• Process-first mindset: Partner where feedstock control and decontamination rigor are proven (≥99.9% purity, FDA LNO), reducing variability and contamination risks.
• Design-for-circularity: Select structures (mono vs. multi-layer) and aesthetics aligned with rPCR properties, ensuring recyclability and consumer clarity in labeling.
• Integrated supply: Leverage a full-category supplier—rigid, flexible, films, nonwovens, closures—to compress lead times, stabilize quality, and simplify governance.

Conclusion: Near-Virgin Performance, Certified Safety, and Scalable Circularity

Berry Global’s Super Clean rPCR, validated by ASTM D2463 mechanical testing and FDA migration protocols, operates within a narrow performance margin versus virgin plastics and meets food-contact standards. Commercial proof in the Dove program confirms that 100% rPCR can scale globally while maintaining quality and supply stability. When paired with design optimization and vertical integration, rPCR is a technically sound, commercially viable pathway to accelerate circular economy goals—without sacrificing core packaging performance.

For packaging teams seeking to align regulatory compliance, CO2 reduction, and consumer trust, the data-driven conclusion is clear: high-quality rPCR is ready for prime time.