Reliable Caps uses PureCycle’s PureFive resin for white closures with 75% certified PCR content

USA – Reliable Caps has partnered with PureCycle to produce white closures with up to 75% certified PCR content, using PureFive resin processed through a dissolution technology that strips contaminants, colours, and odours.

PureFive is PureCycle’s recycled polypropylene resin. 

The agreement comes as packaging groups and brand owners in North America and Europe face stricter rules on recycled content, including extended producer responsibility frameworks in several US states and the European Union’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation. 

PureCycle says its resin is GreenCircle Certified and sourced domestically, with chain-of-custody documentation available for reporting recycled content in packaging.

Solving the PCR Quality Problem

Cameron Manuel, president of Reliable Caps, explained that the PCR grades available in the past fell short on inconsistent colour, inconsistent melt flow, and processing behaviour that made it difficult to hold the quality standards customers expect. 

He noted that PureFive resin solves all of that, with consistency and processing qualities closer to virgin resin than anything else the company has worked with, meaning Reliable Caps can hold tight quality standards throughout an entire production run. 

Polypropylene closures, unlike beverage bottles which are typically clear, are often white or coloured, making colour consistency a significant challenge for recycled content. 

Impurities in lower-grade PCR cause grey or yellow discolouration, requiring over-compounding with virgin resin to mask the tint. 

PureFive’s dissolution process removes colourants at the molecular level, producing a clean base resin that can be coloured predictably.

The Dissolution Advantage

Traditional mechanical recycling shreds, washes, and melts plastic, leaving residual contaminants and degraded polymer chains. 

PureCycle’s dissolution process uses a solvent to selectively dissolve polypropylene, leaving non-polypropylene contaminants (labels, adhesives, other polymers, colourants) as solids that are filtered out. 

The dissolved PP is then precipitated, washed, and pelletised, producing a resin that approaches virgin quality. 

For closure moulders, this means the same melt temperature, same cycle time, and same cavity pressure as virgin resin, no machine adjustments, no scrap spikes, no post-production rejects.

Regulatory Tailwinds

The resins have performance characteristics close to virgin polypropylene, enabling use in packaging for food, beverages, personal care, and household goods where appearance and contact requirements are factors. 

Earlier this month, PureCycle’s PureFive resin was accepted as PCR content under New Jersey’s Recycled Content Law in the US. For brand owners, the combination of high PCR%age and documented chain-of-custody provides compliance evidence for state and federal recycled content mandates. 

Alexander King, PureCycle Technologies commercial senior vice-president, stated that PureFive resin was designed to go where recycled plastics have had issues in the past, working in demanding, contact-sensitive packaging applications that require the purity and aesthetics of virgin material.

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