Retaining its coveted Silver level position and staying in the top tier of the manufacturing category, RETAL proves its vocal stance on creating and producing responsible PET, rPET and HDPE preforms, closures and films across its 12 production sites in nine countries.
Sustainability Director Emmanuel Duffaut explains that ‘maintaining means improving’ in the tightly monitored EcoVadis reporting structure, as quantifiable improvements are required year on year to even keep the same score.
The three points increase overall has been achieved thanks to continuous improvements across the business, notably a 10-point score increase in the Environment category. Duffaut explains, “I believe our excellent results in the Environment category comes from our ongoing climate change management focus with the submission of Science-Based Targets (SBTi) for greenhouse gas emissions and our detailed risk assessment according to TCFD guidelines. We’ve further boosted our action in the Ethics & Labour category too, which is illustrated by our anti-discrimination policy and company-wide, multi-language video training, as well as the external anti-corruption gap analysis according to ISO 37001.”
Duffaut concludes, “We are very proud that we have boosted our overall score from 60% last year to 63%, which puts us well on track for our goal of 65% to reach Gold by 2025. Every percentage increase represents major action and mitigation. It’s ambitious but we are determined; all our plants are dedicated to implementing every possible improvement at plant and group level when it comes to the sustainability of our business and caring for our employees and the environment.”
Read online at SP News, Business Focus, Sustainable Plastics
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Multinational plastic packaging producer RETAL has increased its EcoVadis score for the fifth consecutive year.
Retaining its coveted Silver level position and staying in the top tier of the manufacturing category, RETAL proves its vocal stance on creating and producing responsible PET, rPET and HDPE preforms, closures and films across its 12 production sites in nine countries.
Sustainability Director Emmanuel Duffaut explains that ‘maintaining means improving’ in the tightly monitored EcoVadis reporting structure, as quantifiable improvements are required year on year to even keep the same score.
The three points increase overall has been achieved thanks to continuous improvements across the business, notably a 10-point score increase in the Environment category. Duffaut explains, “I believe our excellent results in the Environment category comes from our ongoing climate change management focus with the submission of Science-Based Targets (SBTi) for greenhouse gas emissions and our detailed risk assessment according to TCFD guidelines. We’ve further boosted our action in the Ethics & Labour category too, which is illustrated by our anti-discrimination policy and company-wide, multi-language video training, as well as the external anti-corruption gap analysis according to ISO 37001.”
Duffaut concludes, “We are very proud that we have boosted our overall score from 60% last year to 63%, which puts us well on track for our goal of 65% to reach Gold by 2025. Every percentage increase represents major action and mitigation. It’s ambitious but we are determined; all our plants are dedicated to implementing every possible improvement at plant and group level when it comes to the sustainability of our business and caring for our employees and the environment.”
For further information contact Maria Jarrar at media@retalgroup.com
Our latest Sustainability Report is available and here we are explaining the content of the key chapters.
The 'Environment’ is our ‘most material topic’.
But what does that mean?
‘Material’ and ‘materiality’ are words that often appear across the Sustainability Report and are used to define those issues that are relevant and significant for the company, our activities, and our ability to create value (financial and non-financial) for the company itself and our stakeholders.
The Sustainability Report Environment chapter details RETAL’s climate change action with our goal to set Science-based targets for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction via SBTi (Science Based Target initiatives) . It also explains our mitigation strategy to use as much renewable energy as possible – goal is to reach 100% in EU & US by the end of 2023 –, phasing out fossil fuels and increasing our energy efficiency across our plants.
Energy, after labour, represents RETAL’s largest operational cost, and is also a major contributor to our GHG emissions.
Sources of emissions
Different sources of GHG emissions (scope 1, 2 and 3) and the leverage we have to mitigate them are explained in this chapter. Scope 1 and 2 are our operational emissions, generated by the combustion of fossil fuels at our plants and the generation of the electricity we use, which are under our control. Scope 3 are indirect emissions generated up and downstream, for example by transport of final goods and raw material or the production of our raw material.
It also explains how we aim to contribute to the plastic circular economy to reduce plastic pollution and our GHG emissions by promoting Design for Recycling, encouraging use of recycled materials and lightweighting products.
The report then gives information on our management of water and waste although both are low materiality topics for RETAL.
The report details how we support our goals for boosting our CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project) and EcoVadis scores, which are important performance evaluation systems for climate change and CSR respectively.
For further information contact Maria Jarrar at media@retalgroup.com
RETAL Baltic Films will be adding to its extensive flexible packaging portfolio with mono solutions for APET and top lidding films at this year’s Interpack, set to be held at the Dusseldorf Trade Fair Centre from 4-10 May 2023.
The team will be available at stand C10 in Hall 12, answering questions, offering samples and sharing the advantages of its agile range of films for the food and film conversion markets.
RETAL Baltic Film’s team of rigid and flexible film experts will present how its latest sustainable solutions for mono packaging can support recyclability goals of its customers. When sourcing both rigid bottom and top lidding films from one supplier, RETAL partners can be sure their packaging needs will be solved with the highest attention and customization. In-house packaging equipment installed at RETAL Baltic Films helps to cut downtime on customers’ lines as analysis is made before reaching the production line.
General manager Viktorija Griziene says, “I am looking forward to highlighting our flexibility, product quality and personalized customer approach at Interpack; 2023 is set to be another strong year for us as we continue to invest and expand, so we shall be talking to our customers and seeing how our latest innovations can support their sustainable packaging goals. As a rather small but experienced team with the benefit of being part of a multinational group with its own resin production, we are agile but with a stable supply of raw materials and stay close to the latest developments in the market.”
Visit RETAL Baltic Films at Interpack at Stand C10 in Hall 12
See RETAL Baltic Films’ website at www.retalfilms.com
For further information, contact info@retalfilms.com or Maria Jarrar at media@retalgroup.com
RETAL is pleased to report that it has maintained its leadership in climate change management with a CDP B score for the 4th year in a row, placing the company above the average C score for its sector - Plastic Products Manufacturing.
RETAL Sustainability Director Emmanuel Duffaut notes how this B score represents progress rather than maintenance in real terms, as the ever-more demanding CDP evaluation process requires continuous action and improvement to keep the same score year on year.
Duffaut says, “We are confident we will reach our A score goal soon, through the validation of our near-term science-based targets in 2023 and performing a climate change risk assessment according to TCFD methodology which will, respectively, improve both our mitigation action and our governance.”
Duffaut adds, “This latest B score rewards our strong climate change stewardship and investment in mitigation; we have increased our use of renewable electricity once again. RETAL’s leadership position in climate change management demonstrates our appetite to mitigate our most material environmental impact but also to meet the strong expectation of our global household brand customers and other stakeholders in this field.”
For further information, please contact Maria Jarrar at media@retalgroup.com
Follow RETAL on LinkedIn here.
RETAL continues to invest in its R&D capabilities, with third-party testing now available at its laboratory in Klaipeda, Lithuania.
Chief Quality Director Oleksandr Grynko leads the department, explaining that RETAL can now widen the scope of its R&D to include full range testing for preforms, bottles, caps and films for both customers and third parties.
Oleksandr says, “We can offer a full range of tests for carbonated soft drinks, non-carbonated beverages and flexible packaging, using our modern equipment.”
The two pilot lines in the laboratory fully meet the requirements and methods of market leaders.
Oleksandr adds, “The laboratory keeps up with the times, and we are currently working on methods that allow us to control the content of such substances in rPET - benzene, limonene, 2- methyl 1,3 dioxolane and so on. For this, we use the newest gas chromatograph with a mass detector and headspace. This will reduce the time for us to validate new grades of raw materials, processes and products. It will help prevent possible negative consequences for us and our customers.”
The increasing reporting demands of a Sustainability Report is great for boosting transparency and focusing on quantifiable actions but can make it harder for stakeholders across the value chain to understand, especially if English is not their native language.
For multinational plastic packaging solutions provider RETAL, who operates 12 production sites in nine countries and serves customers in over 70 countries, its Sustainability Report is an important way to inform stakeholders of its strong mitigating actions and ambitious goals across its business.
RETAL’s latest Sustainability Report (for the period 2021) has recently been published and is available here for download, and, at 80 pages, is an informative document that explains the company’s progressive approach. This is the first year that an Executive Summary has been produced to accompany it; following the same format and reporting information, it can be easily shared, understood and translated, with each local plant able to offer it to their customers.
Sustainability Director Emmanuel Duffaut says, “The most important thing is that everyone who wants to know what we’re doing in terms of sustainability can find out quickly and easily. The Executive Summary is clear and shows what we’re doing now and what we expect to achieve going forwards. It’s a great addition to the Sustainability Report as it a baton to pass to our customers; we’re all keen to contribute to a responsible plastic circular economy as much as possible.”
The RETAL Sustainability Report 2021 Executive Summary is available for download here.
For further information, please contact Maria Jarrar at media@retalgroup.com
Converter Retal has invested in its R&D capabilities in order to offer third-party testing at its laboratory in Klaipeda, Lithuania.
Aleksandr Grinko, chief quality director at the company, said that the company was seeking to widen the scope of its R&D to be able to “create and perfect our preforms and closures in accordance with customer requirements”, but also saw an opportunity to test third-party preforms and closures too.
Grinko continued: “We can offer a full range of tests for carbonated soft drinks and non-carbonated beverages, including prototype development, using our modern equipment, which includes a capping and filling station, large climate chambers that are 750 litres each, an automated torque tester, optical shelf-life tester, and automated open performance tester – these are all from Steinfurth – plus a Zeiss automatic measuring system, plus various other machines and tools.”
The Zalkin pilot capping line delivers semi-industrial testing, which allows the functionality of newly-designed closures that have been produced from a new type of raw material to be testing in aa valuable manner.
“The capacity of this line is 10,000 bottles an hour and it lets us quickly detect hidden defects in a reduced time. Previously, tests were carried out on customers’ lines, but of course this is far better in terms of cost, ease and speed.”
Equipment at the Retal testing laboratory also tests for temperature, humidity and oxygen permeability.
Read online at Eco-Plastics in Packaging.
Read / download in PDF
Local, national and multi-national beverage brands are increasingly keen to boost the sustainability of their packaging, with vocal commitments driven by ambitious targets for environmental and economic performance.
With such a high demand for more sustainable packaging solutions, the challenge for converters and brands is often reliability of supply; wanting to do more of the right thing isn’t always possible if the product isn’t available in the first place.
‘Closing the loop’ is a phrase that represents the scientific approach to a circular economy for the plastic packaging industry, with the focus on making sure sustainable packaging solutions are reliably available by cutting waste , efficiently recycling, and effectively reintegrating post-consumer waste, particularly from single-use plastics.
Lithuania-based UAB NEO Group, manufacturer of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resins, is one of Europe's leading producers of high-quality PET resins and polyols, and part of the multi-national plastic packaging producing group’s RETAL Industries Ltd. NEO Group’s most recent new product development sees it harness many years of expertise in glycolysis processes with the production of aromatic polyester polyols to create a future-focused solution to this closing the loop conundrum.
Read the article online at Drinkworld Technology (page 40)
Read / download the article in PDF.
With the cost of living crisis biting for consumers and the rise in energy costs impacting on everyone, the fact that waste is unsustainable – in the economic and environmental senses of the word – is just one of the drivers for practical packaging solutions for food.
A recent study shows that the EU now wastes more food than it imports, with around €150billion worth of food wasted each year. All waste is heartbreaking, but food waste is one of the most pointless and depressing, with the fact that around 829 million people go to bed hungry each night while all that food is being thrown away...and produced and paid for at a time when many can least afford it. It is a privilege to be able to throw away food - but we must not waste resources.
One way in which food waste can be tackled is by ensuring suitable packaging is used that compliments how consumers use the product. While we’re all being encouraged to take lunch to work instead of shelling out on takeaways, or making sure we effectively use the produce we’ve bought instead of chucking out half-eaten packets of food from the fridge because it dried out and lost its appeal, it’s a false economy if we don’t fully use what we’ve paid for.
Vikorija Griziene, general manager at RETAL Films, explains how the company has successfully created resealable packaging that’s ideal for sliced cheeses and deli meats, “Developing resealable packaging is a huge technical challenge because it is important that the packaging offers the necessary barrier properties. Sliced cheese needs the right environment inside the packaging; no moisture but not too dry either, so the product has a good shelf life, even after it’s been opened and closed a number of times. We’ve conducted a wide range of technical trials to be sure that we can offer a range of top lidding and bottom film solutions that are resealable and recyclable.”
Read online at Dairy Industries (page 37)
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