No Objection Letter for Recycled Plastics #81

Note: Material that is not releasable under the Electronic Freedom of Information Act (EFOIA) has been redacted/deleted from this electronic version of the document. Deletions are marked by a barred out area or hash marks.

May 22, 2003

Matthew Dikmans
Roychem
Turnhoutsebaan 75
B-2275 Gierle
BELGIUM

Dear Mr. Dikmans:

This letter is in response to your inquiry of April 16, 2003, requesting an opinion letter from the FDA confirming that monomers produced by Roychem's polyethylene terephthalate (PET) tertiary recycling process are suitable for use in the manufacture of food contact articles. Roychem's process utilizes glycolysis towards the depolymerization of post-consumer PET, including material obtained from curbside collection programs, into oligomers | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |.  . These oligomers are then repolymerized into post-consumer recycled PET (PCR-PET) resin.

FDA's memorandum of July 16, 2001, summarizes our analysis of the surrogate testing data in our files for tertiary recycling processes for polyesters, including methanolysis of PET or polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) to starting monomers, and glycolysis of PET to oligomers. Based on this analysis, we have concluded that tertiary recycling of PET or PEN by methanolysis or glycolysis results in the production of monomers or oligomers that are readily purified to produce a finished polymer that is suitable for food-contact use. For this reason, surrogate test data are no longer considered necessary by FDA for the evaluation of tertiary recycling processes utilizing these techniques. Your submitted description of Roychem's process demonstrates its similarity to those tertiary recycling processes for which FDA has previously issued opinion letters. Therefore, we are of the opinion that the tertiary recycling process described in you submission will produce PCR-PET that is acceptable for use in contact with food, provided the resulting PCR-PET complies with applicable food additive regulations.

Although we have concluded that the recycling process described in your submission will produce PCR-PET that is acceptable for food-contact use, you should be aware that we are currently developing a formal policy on the use of post-consumer recycled plastics in contact with food. Thus, the decisions set forth in this letter may need to be modified due to future deliberations on this matter.

If you have any further questions concerning this matter, please do not hesitate to contact us.