By investing in Eastar Renew 6763, Pacur moves closer to meeting its sustainability goals and furthers innovation in the healthcare packaging industry

 OSHKOSH, Wis., Aug. 29, 2023

Pacur, a leading custom sheet extruder in the medical space, has announced its use of Eastman’s Eastar™ Renew 6763 to produce rigid, thermoformed, sterile barrier packaging. This is an important step to contribute to a more circular future and divert landfill-bound plastic waste.  

 “For more than 40 years, Pacur has earned the trust of medical device and packaging companies around the world through our ongoing commitment to quality, service and innovation,” said Jason Eckel, Pacur's senior vice president of sales and marketing. “A key element of our innovation agenda is a commitment to investing in the developing of next-generation sustainability solutions. With the introduction of Pacur custom sheet and rollstock solutions leveraging Eastar Renew 6763, Pacur and Eastman are enabling progress toward a circular economy.”

Eastar Renew 6763 is powered by Eastman’s innovative molecular recycling technologies and is indistinguishable from Eastar 6763 copolyester, with the same durability, safety and performance relied on by medical device companies for decades. Sourcing Eastar Renew enables Pacur — based in Oshkosh, Wisconsin — to certify that plastic waste is being diverted from landfills to produce new packaging. The amount of plastic waste diverted is tracked through an ISCC-certified mass balance accounting approach that allocates recycled content to Eastman Renew materials.   

Pacur is underscoring its commitment to advance a more circular future for healthcare packaging by using Eastar Renew 6763. Through their commitment to material innovation, Pacur and Eastman are driving change in the industry. Eastman will start-up the world’s largest material-to-material molecular recycling facility in Kingsport, Tenn. later this year. Molecular recycling empowers the healthcare industry to continue to put patient safety first while contributing to the elimination of plastic waste and driving the collection and recycling of hard-to-recycle materials to catalyze a circular economy. 

Pacur’s use of Eastar Renew 6763 in sterile barrier packaging products is enabled by Pacur’s ISCC PLUS-certified facility, achieved in 2022. ISCC PLUS is a globally recognized, third-party certification system for tracking sustainable feedstocks through the supply chain.

In the News ....

Medical device manufacturers can benefit from a material packaging development courtesy of the cooperative efforts of the resin producer, extruder and thermoformer.

The typical supply chain follows a path from a medical device manufacturer (MDM) to a distributor to a hospital or medical facility and ultimately to the patient. But in this instance, let’s take a ride along the value chain that begins with a resin supplier that provides pellets to an extruder, which provides sheet made from that resin to a thermoformer, which then sells trays and rigid medical device packaging from that sheet to MDMs.

Read the entire news article - https://www.logisticsforthelifesciences.com/medical-device-trays-and-supply-chain

Pacur® is pleased to announce a new product, PETG FOAM, for the medical device packaging market. Pacur® PETG FOAM is co-extruded with Eastar™ PETG copolyester 6763 and Eastalite™ copolyester foam system from Eastman Chemical Company. For the medical device industry, PETG FOAM offers advantages over traditional materials where low weight and sustainability are larger parts of an application’s fitness for use requirements. PETG FOAM is a reliable, safe alternative to high impact polystyrene (HIPS) in the opaque rigid medical packaging market. PETG FOAM also shows considerable manufacturing improvements over HIPS in terms of processing, waste reduction, and reduced cleaning; all resulting in lower overall processing costs.

The extruded product contains an Eastalite™ copolyester foam core with skins of Eastar™ copolyester 6763. This gives the Medical Thermoformers and OEMs the same processing properties and seal integrity of monolayer Eastar™ PETG copolyester 6763.

The opaque PETG FOAM can be processed with the same thermoforming and sealing equipment as HIPS, yet it provides cleaner cutting and offers greater opportunities for safety and sustainability.

Sterilization methods of ETO, Gamma Ray, Electron Beam, and Plasma Gas are compatible with this product.

In addition, PETG FOAM passed selected ISO 10993 biocompatibility tests and is compliant with applicable sections of ISO 11607. This product also carries the resin identification code number  1  , along with being FDA approved and BPA free.