RETAL PA in Donora, Pennsylvania was delighted to host a Women's Business Enterprise Center East Industry Day this December.
With the aim of supporting and promoting women-owned businesses by connecting them with corporations and Government suppliers, the WBEC organisation actively encourages incorporating Diversified Suppliers to connect and network.
RETAL PA's Finance Manager Anthony Langel and HR Manager Elizabeth Giecek were instrumental in contacting WBEC to see how the company could positively promote Diversified Suppliers in its supply chain network. Giecek says, “We work with a number of leading global brands that put great emphasis on working with vendors that support Diversified Suppliers, so we were keen to learn more and see how this positive initiative could be mutually beneficial, while helping to promote this excellent organisation in our local community.”
Langel continues, “WBEC East’s President reached out to see if RETAL PA would be interested in hosting its latest Manufacturing Industry Day, which is a round table discussion with panelists representing local companies and potential vendors that are all WBE (Women Owned Businesses).”
The morning-long event included a Meet & Greet, Q&A session and a presentation from RETAL, as well as a tour of the facility and a shared lunch. Langel notes, “We were very happy to be complemented on our bright factory as well as our commitment to taking steps to incorporate diversified spend into our supply chain.”
The RETAL team was pleased to report that the event identified potential vendors that will help to bring more diversification to RETAL PA, supporting its promise to global brands and enabling a more inclusive workplace.
BrauBeviale 2019 highlighted the sustainability potential of collaboration across the beverage value chain, with the RETAL team proud to present its tethered closure solutions alongside innovation ideas from key industry stakeholders.
European Marketing Manager Mariya Ushakova says, “There was a great energy at BrauBeviale 2019; everyone knows that sustainability is crucial to our ongoing success, both as businesses and as individuals, so to see exciting products and solutions from the whole of the beverage industry value chain was inspiring.”
RETAL presented its two patented tethered closure solutions at BrauBeviale, with plenty of samples available to illustrate how the expertly-designed tethered caps are both responsible and easy to use, particularly as they have a smooth edge that makes drinking more comfortable for end users. The whole range of RETAL's established portfolio was also available.
RETAL's stand was created by certified-sustainable trade fair construction company Mesomondo, who confirmed that RETAL's stand was CO2 neutral.
Ushakova adds, “We would like to thank everyone that came to visit our informative stand; it was good to see customers and potential customers and talk about our tethered closures as well as discussing the issues that are impacting on us all. It feels like a new wave of collaborative understanding of how we can all support the circular economy and RETAL is delighted to be a part of it.”
Global PET packaging manufacturer RETAL has signed the Circular Plastics Alliance Declaration, adding its voice to the global shift towards sustainable and circular plastic packaging, and heightened demand for firms to take the lead in their production.
Launched in December 2018 by the European Commission, the Circular Plastics Alliance advocates for the plastics industry to move to a circular economy model. The CPA’s immediate goal is to ensure that more than 10 million tonnes of recycled plastic find their way into plastic products made within the EU every year by 2025.
Yuri Khmara, a member of RETAL’s Board of Directors, stressed that strong, high-level value-chain partnerships and collaboration are key to ensuring plastic pollution is successfully addressed. “As demand for plastics packaging continues to increase, it’s hugely important that all of us in the industry take a lead in addressing the environmental issues at stake,” he said. “RETAL fully supports the CPA as a great way to ensure that the sector becomes more responsible for plastics pollution as a whole. And, as a member of the value chain that leads to that pollution, we are committed to contributing our expertise in whatever way to mitigating the issue.”
RETAL is already active in many of the areas the CPA declaration focuses on. It promotes a design-to-recycle approach, supports and advocates for PET recycling across Europe, and conducts local clean-up operations to help raise awareness, reduce the environmental impact of plastic and increase understanding of the role of an efficient circular economy. All of this is achieved through RETAL’s membership of Recyclass, PETcore and Waste Free Oceans, groups dedicated to similar aims.
With more than 20 years’ experience in PET packaging production, as well as a commitment to the long-term sustainability of the plastics industry, RETAL has the know-how and capacity to make a substantial contribution to the CPA’s aims. “If we are to stop the environmental impact of plastic, we need to take it seriously as a valuable reusable resource, not treat it as disposable waste,” Khmara added. “It’s a challenge that everyone, from manufacturers to retailers to consumers, plays a part in solving, and in signing this declaration, RETAL is voicing its commitment to making plastic circular.”
The first of RETAL’s clean up events took place in Cyprus, on 12 October, with over 30 volunteers removing plastic waste from the coastline to be repurposed into meaningful products.
Joining forces with international Waste Free Oceans, RETAL employees and their families collected discarded plastic waste from the Lady’s mile area coast in Limassol, highlighting the role of plastic packaging companies in the fight against plastic pollution.
The group of volunteers was bolstered by 13 members of the RETAL-sponsored Apollon Ladies’ Football Club, including vice president George Ollandos, who were delighted to join together with RETAL and WFO to show how a strong team spirit helps make challenging situations far more positive.
RETAL’s clean-up event was combined with the annual Environment & Recycling Festival in the Molos area of Limassol, with the strapline ‘Build Good Habits’ aiming to raise public awareness. Here, RETAL’s stand offered ‘Raising Awareness’ brochures, with many local people visiting the stand to discuss recycling, circular economy and future of positive plastic. Hagai Golan, RETAL Cyprus General Manager, says, “This was a true team event; bringing together RETAL people, WFO and the Apollon Ladies F.C. made for an impressive group that showed how positive action can create a ripple effect. The festival was also an excellent opportunity to show our local community what RETAL is doing to mitigate our environmental impact.”
The first of RETAL’s clean-up events has taken place in with more than 30 volunteers removing plastic waste from the coastline to be repurposed into meaningful products.
Joining forces with Waste Free Oceans, RETAL employees and their families collected discarded plastic waste from the Lady’s Mile area coast in Limassol, highlighting the role of plastic packaging companies in the fight against plastic pollution.
The group of volunteers was bolstered by 13 members of the RETAL-sponsored Apollon Ladies’ Football Club, including VP George Ollandos, who were keen to show how a strong team spirit helps make challenging situations far more positive.
Hagai Golan, RETAL Cyprus General Manager, said: “This was a true team event bringing together RETAL people, WFO and the Apollon Ladies FC and making for an impressive group that showed how positive action can create a ripple effect. The festival was also an excellent opportunity to show our local community what RETAL is doing to mitigate our environmental impact.”
RETAL’s clean-up event was combined with the annual Environment & Recycling Festival in the Molos area of Limassol, with the strapline ‘Build Good Habits’ aiming to raise public awareness. Here, RETAL’s stand offered ‘Raising Awareness’ brochures, with many local people visiting the stand to discuss recycling, circular economy and future of positive plastic.
Emmanuel Duffaut, RETAL’s Sustainability Director, added: “We are determined to be active and responsible in our role in the circular economy. By partnering with Waste Free Oceans, we are able to see how collecting visible plastic waste from our coastlines helps promote a positive second life for plastic.”
RETAL is a PET preform supplier and active member of Waste Free Oceans, which targets converters, governments, companies, and the public to inspire recovery, recycling and reuse.
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The first of RETAL’s clean up events took place in Cyprus on October 12th, with over 30 volunteers removing plastic waste from the coastline to be repurposed into meaningful products.
Joining forces with international Waste Free Oceans, RETAL employees and their families collected discarded plastic waste from the Lady’s mile area coast in Limassol, highlighting the role of plastic packaging companies in the fight against plastic pollution.
The group of volunteers was bolstered by 13 members of the RETAL-sponsored Apollon Ladies’ Football Club, including vice president George Ollandos, who were delighted to join together with RETAL and WFO to show how a strong team spirit helps make challenging situations far more positive.
RETAL’s clean-up event combined with the annual Environment & Recycling Festival in the Molos area of Limassol, with the strapline ‘Build Good Habits’ aiming to raise public awareness. Here, RETAL’s stand offered ‘Raising Awareness’ brochures, with many local people visiting the stand to discuss recycling, circular economy and future of positive plastic. Hagai Golan, RETAL Cyprus General Manager, says, “This was a true team event; bringing together RETAL people, WFO and the Apollon Ladies F.C. made for an impressive group that showed how positive action can create a ripple effect. The festival was also an excellent opportunity to show our local community what RETAL is doing to mitigate our environmental impact.”
Emmanuel Duffaut, RETAL’s sustainability director, says, “We are determined to be active and responsible in our role in the circular economy. By partnering with Waste Free Oceans, we are able to see how collecting visible plastic waste from our coastlines helps to promote a positive second life for plastic packaging and to realise the value that PET creates.”
RETAL is an active member of Waste Free Oceans, which targets converters, governments, companies, and the public, to mobilise them into recovering, recycling and reusing plastic. With over 75 members, including leading global manufacturers and household brands, Brussels-based WFO promises to ‘clean up our waters and use what’s in them wisely’, as well as lobbying policy makers for positive change and hosting events to raise awareness.
Duffaut adds, “RETAL is a global PET packaging producer with over 1500 employees worldwide; our employees want to be proud to work for RETAL. By encouraging our people to be part of the plastic packaging solution and by continually investing resources in creating plastic packaging solutions that utilise recycled PET, we can ensure we continue to deliver convenience for the consumer and sustainability for the planet.”
Check out the video from our Clean-Up.
RETAL Baltic has gained EU Funding to support the economic and professional development of its staff.
Thanks to the European Union Funds’ Investments in 2014-2020, RETAL Baltic will promote a range of valuable skills through high-level training across its production team, including ‘adaptation to economic changes, improvement of professional qualifications and the development of specific professional competencies'.
The total value of the project is EUR 538,133.88, of which EUR 269,066.94 is funded by the European Social Fund. RETAL Baltic has gained funding from the Priority 9 ‘Public Education and Enhancing the Potential of the Human Resources’ of the Operational Programme, which is due to end in August 2021.
General Manager of RETAL Baltic Viktorija Jureviciute says, “We are delighted to have gained funding to support our in-service training as we are committed to the continual development of our team, both for their personal and professional development and for the on-going enhancement of RETAL’s PET and rPET packaging solutions. We thank the European Social Fund for this valuable contribution, and we look forward to utilising the additional skills the training will bring.”
The key unifying theme of FachPack 2019 is of course ‘Environmentally friendly packaging’, but this covers a huge diversity of topics from across the entire packaging supply chain. We asked exhibitors about the ideas and solutions they will be presenting at the event, and which trends or developments they are most curious about.
RETAL
The RETAL Baltic team of film experts will be on hand to discuss our latest line that produces films of up to 100 per cent rPET, a great boost from our current 60 per cent rPET.
RETAL Baltic values FachPack’s strong focus on sustainability and how this core issue impacts us all.
We expect to learn more about how we can all contribute and play our role in the circular economy.
Read online version on Packaging Europe
Global plastic packaging manufacturer RETAL publishes its first Sustainability Report that sets out its ambitious CSR strategy and action plan.
At a time when plastic packaging is in the spotlight and sustainability issues such as climate change are of great concern to our customers and stakeholders, RETAL felt crucial to bring more transparency to its sustainability action and performance.
RETAL's Sustainability Director Emmanuel Duffaut says, “We welcome the spotlight on plastic packaging as it helps to push us even further forward in our ongoing CSR effort to develop more sustainable and circular packaging; RETAL is determined to integrate CSR principles across our whole business to develop on a sustainable way”.
From sourcing renewable energy and light weighting our products, to assessing our Human rights impacts or evaluating our suppliers’ CSR performance and raising awareness on fighting plastic pollution, we know that our impact goes beyond the packaging we produce and we take a value chain approach.”
The Sustainability Report is available to download on the RETAL corporate website (link). Purposefully easy to read and accessible, the report is a wide-ranging document that clarifies RETAL's current sustainability position and its mission and expectations, addressing topics including our approach to CSR management and our action on climate change and circular economy.
Duffaut adds, “RETAL's first Sustainability Report marks our seriousness in this crucial journey and puts in place our intention to progress profitably as a responsible plastic packaging producer and partner. By openly accepting the scrutiny and opinions of our stakeholder groups, we wish to formalise a future that mitigates our environmental and social impacts of our business.”
Attending trade exhibitions is resource-intensive. As a responsible global packaging manufacturer, RETAL takes attending trade exhibitions seriously; we don't go to many, so those we do need to be excellent.
As a global company with senior management located worldwide, the vast majority of our internal communications is conducted online. Group meetings are usually through video conferencing, with only annual meetings face-to-face, as part of the company's Smart Travel approach. Effective online communication means we greatly reduce our carbon footprint as well as offer a more flexible workplace for our employees.
This autumn, members of the international RETAL team will be attending both FachPack and BrauBeviale, giving us a chance to not only meet with key customers and potential customers, but also to see each other in person!
RETAL's senior marketing manager Mariya Ushakova says, “Sustainability is a priority across RETAL and across the packaging industry; it's a key theme for both FachPack and BrauBeviale, and very much underpins everything we do at RETAL. Both events are great opportunities for us to share interesting innovations with our customers, particularly our new tethered closure solution that’s closely aligned to RETAL’s plastic pollution reduction strategy in line with EU Directives. I also really value the chance to be on the stand with my colleagues! We enjoy each other's company and it's so good to bring our combined energy to the stand.”
FachPack, from September 24 – 26 in Nuremberg, Germany, will see RETAL at stand 9-203. Our multilingual team is pleased to join this key complete packaging industry supply chain event, with environmentally-responsible innovations including our latest up-to 100% rPET film.
Get free entry to FachPack as our guest by using the RETAL code A410244 here.
BrauBeviale, from November 12-14 and also in Nuremberg, hosts the RETAL stand at 4-323, with the whole of the beverage value chain represented. It’s a great opportunity for our local team to present our complete PET and rPET portfolio, including our much-anticipated tethered closures, with plenty of samples available and experts on hand to share performance advantages.
Visitors to BrauBeviale are welcome to use the RETAL code B413453 for free entry
See you at RETAL’s stand!