IN Brief:
- More than 9.5 tonnes of plastic pyrolysis oil were processed through Viva Energy’s Geelong refinery.
- Five tonnes of recycled polypropylene were converted into seven million ISCC-certified KitKat wrappers.
- Imported pyrolysis oil remains necessary because suitable Australian feedstock is not available at commercial scale.
Viva Energy and Nestlé have completed an Australian production trial that converted soft-plastics-derived feedstock into recycled polypropylene for seven million KitKat wrappers, testing a domestic manufacturing chain for food-grade flexible packaging at commercial scale.
More than 9.5 tonnes of plastic pyrolysis oil were processed at Viva Energy’s Geelong refinery during the programme. Five tonnes of recycled polypropylene were then produced and passed through a Victorian converting chain involving Taghleef Industries and Amcor, which manufactured film and finished wrappers for Nestlé.
A limited run of KitKat 4 Finger bars using the ISCC-certified wrappers is now being rolled out to stores. The project builds on earlier prototype work between the companies, but this phase moves the concept into a multi-million-pack production run rather than demonstrating a small quantity of technically feasible material.
The chain begins upstream of conventional film converting. Soft plastic is converted into pyrolysis oil, which can be processed through refinery infrastructure and used as a feedstock for polypropylene manufacture. The polymer then moves into film production and converting before arriving at a food-packaging operation as a wrapper capable of running on existing confectionery equipment.
Each stage adds a qualification requirement. Food-contact material has to meet safety standards, while the film must retain the sealing, stiffness, barrier, print, and machinability characteristics needed on high-speed packaging lines. A polymer that meets a recycled-content target but creates frequent stoppages or weak seals has little practical value to a confectionery manufacturer.
Producing seven million wrappers gives the partners enough volume to expose problems that prototype quantities can hide. Gauge variation, film handling, static, sealing windows, print registration, and pack integrity all become more visible when material runs continuously rather than through short development trials.
The project used imported plastic pyrolysis oil because suitable Australian feedstock is not yet available at commercial scale. That leaves a clear gap in an otherwise Australian manufacturing route: the country has demonstrated refinery processing, polymer production, film conversion, and finished food-packaging manufacture, but cannot yet supply enough local advanced-recycling feedstock to close the loop.
That constraint shifts attention to collection and sorting as much as to chemistry. Flexible plastics are difficult to recycle mechanically when they combine different polymers, inks, coatings, food contamination, and very low material weight per item. Advanced recycling can handle some streams that conventional mechanical routes struggle with, but it still needs dependable volumes of correctly prepared waste.
Viva Energy’s Geelong refinery and adjoining polymers infrastructure give the project an existing industrial platform. Using refinery assets to process alternative feedstocks can reduce the need for a completely separate chemical-production chain, although commercial adoption still depends on feedstock availability, certification, and economics.
The trial also relies on mass-balance accounting. In a shared production system, individual polymer molecules in a particular wrapper are not physically traced back to a particular batch of waste plastic. Instead, certified accounting tracks the sustainable feedstock through the process and allocates an equivalent quantity of recycled content to finished products.
That model can make recycled feedstocks workable in large continuous plants, where segregating every batch would be inefficient, but it places more weight on chain-of-custody controls. Packaging buyers need confidence that certified inputs, process records, and allocations support the claims attached to the finished pack.
For Nestlé, the manufacturing test is ultimately at the packing line. KitKat wrappers have to feed, form, seal, and protect chocolate at commercial speed, while maintaining appearance and shelf-life performance. If recycled polypropylene narrows the operating window or raises scrap rates, the material saving can be offset by production inefficiency.
Amcor and Taghleef have an equally important role because recycled polymer does not move directly from refinery to food plant. Film conversion has to produce a stable substrate, and the final converter has to deliver printed material within the dimensions and sealing specifications expected by the packaging machinery.
The seven-million-wrapper run therefore tests an industrial network rather than one piece of recycling technology. The refinery, polymer plant, film producer, converter, brand owner, and food factory all have to work within the same certified material chain, and a failure at any interface can prevent recycled feedstock from reaching the consumer pack.
The remaining barrier is scale. Seven million wrappers are significant for a qualification run but small beside the annual packaging demand of a national confectionery portfolio. Moving from demonstration to routine supply will require enough local waste feedstock, advanced-recycling capacity, and economic incentive to keep the same chain supplied continuously rather than for isolated campaigns.
