Origin Materials has commenced the commercial production of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) caps at its manufacturing centre in Reed City, Michigan, US.

The company's co-founder and CEO, John Bissell, highlighted this achievement as a milestone in bringing the company's caps to the market.

The first Origin CapFormer System at the centre is now producing PET closures at commercial volumes, with expectations to generate hundreds of millions of caps annually.

Bissell also mentioned that this initial CapFormer line is meeting the company's expectations and is poised to impact the industry strongly.

Looking ahead, Bissell expressed optimism about the potential for technological and manufacturing process enhancements at the site.

The PCO 1881-compliant caps are expected to transform the domestic packaging industry by delivering on the recycling circularity of PET.

In a press release, Origin Materials said its technology platform for producing PET caps is designed to enhance the sustainability and performance of a broad range of packaging solutions, both existing and emerging.

Bissell said: “We are continually improving our technologies and manufacturing process techniques so that future lines will have even higher production rates and even better unit economics. The sky is the limit as we begin to address the $65bn closures opportunity.

“Market interest and the strength of the overall demand for our caps continues to suggest we will be able to sell every cap we can make.

“We have multiple MOUs [memorandum of understandings] signed, with a growing list of prospects in the qualification phase, and a growing pipeline of new potential customers. We're looking forward to announcing additional MOUs along with customer names in the coming months.”

US-based Origin Materials is a technology company involved in developing sustainable solutions such as all-PET caps and closures, as well as low-carbon material solutions for various products and applications.