Customer case
Norfersk: Demonstrating the impact of Faerch’s circular tray solutions
As global demand grows for circular food packaging, Faerch continues to advance food-grade recycling at scale through its CIRPET+™ material, produced from recycled former food packaging. One of the leading examples of this progress is the transition implemented by Norfersk, a major Norwegian fresh meat producer. By adopting Faerch’s circular PET trays made with 70% CIRPET+™, sourced entirely from used food trays, Norfersk is showcasing how food manufacturers can significantly reduce their carbon footprint while maintaining product protection and consumer confidence.
Customer challenge
Food producers face increasing pressure to reduce environmental impact without compromising food safety or functional performance. Traditional recycling processes have relied heavily on PET from bottles, a material now prioritised for closed loop bottle recycling. Norfersk required a packaging solution that moved beyond bottle derived rPET and supported a dedicated circular system for food grade packaging.
Faerch’s solution: High performance circular trays
Through close collaboration with Faerch’s material and packaging specialists, Norfersk transitioned to PET trays made with 70% tray to tray recycled content. This solution enables a true closed material loop in which used trays are collected, recycled, and remade into new food grade trays.
Key benefits of Faerch’s solution include:
- 70% circular content, recovered from former food packaging
- Designed for genuine tray to tray recycling, supporting continuous material loops
- Modern matte appearance, offering strong shelf visibility without changing consumer-perceived quality
Implementation and market performance
The first rollout covered Norfersk’s ground meat products and has since expanded to around 65 SKUs. Early data showed no change in consumer purchasing behaviour, demonstrating that circular packaging can be introduced seamlessly without affecting sales performance.
Measured environmental impact
By choosing trays made with Faerch’s CIRPET+™ material, Norfersk has reduced the climate impact of its packaging compared with trays made from virgin plastic or bottle-derived recycled PET. Independent carbon footprint assessments show that CIRPET+™ delivers significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions - approximately 82–86% lower than average virgin PET and 32–50% lower than average recyclate from PET bottles - while keeping valuable food-grade PET within a dedicated circular system for food packaging.
A circular shift - continuing journey of innovation
In 2020, Norfersk moved to Faerch’s patented Ultra Low Stacking™ solution, which transformed the way their trays are transported, stored, and handled. Unlike traditional tray designs that leave a 3-6 mm gap between each tray, Faerch’s Ultra Low Stacking technology uses just a 1.5 mm gap, allowing significantly more trays to be stacked in the same space. This innovative design reduces the number of pallets needed by up to 67%, leading to fewer delivery miles, lower CO₂e emissions, and less transit packaging - supporting a more sustainable supply chain.
The shift to CIRPET+™ marks the next major step in their sustainability journey, and reinforces Faerch’s role as a partner enabling scalable circularity in the food industry.
Norfersk’s transition demonstrates the real world impact of Faerch’s circular PET tray solutions. By enabling high levels of tray to tray recycled content at commercial scale, Faerch is helping customers reduce emissions, keep materials in a circular system for food packaging, and accelerate the shift to a fully circular food packaging system.
70%
Circular tray-to-tray
recycled content
86%
Lower CO₂ footprint
vs. virgin PET*
67%
Fewer pallets needed
1.5 mm
Ultra Low Stacking™ gap
