Global plastic packaging manufacturer RETAL is conscious of its important role in sustainable development and closing the loop. Its latest media campaign focuses on ways in which it can harness its sphere of influence and promote a circular economy, with an article and video published on Forbes.
The company’s approach includes responsible and sustainable solutions already implemented across many of the group's multinational sites, such as purchasing up to 100% renewable energy, installing solar panels, and investing in the latest CAD technology to support its design-for-recycling approach to R&D.
A crucial message in the article and video is RETAL's assertion that valuing plastic waste is imperative in establishing and maintaining a closed loop. RETAL Sustainability Director Emmanuel Duffaut adds, “We have developed the capacity and expertise to produce preforms from up to 100 per cent recycled PET, and we are continuously working towards creating innovative design-for-recycling solutions that use light-weighting and tethered closures. This campaign is a great way to add visibility to our commitment to a circular economy.”
That visibility is already being felt by many of RETAL's multinational food and beverage brand customers, who value its strict CSR standards that are active across its facilities, bringing reliability and continuity for household name product packaging.
A representative from a global beverage brand customer agrees, “It’s great to see how RETAL is actively working on this important topic and trying to shed some light on the value that plastic has, focusing on the fact this material is not bad per se and it has indeed a lower CO2 footprint than the other primary packaging in the market (cans, glass).”
Norway's Telemark Springwater adds, “I read the article last week. Very good!”
PETcore Europe, the association that represents the complete PET value chain across Europe, also praised the campaign. PETcore’s management team member Sebastian Lemp says, “RETAL's transparent approach to address and overcome recycling challenges to move forward in a circular economy is exemplary. PET is not just any material; it is one of the most sustainable and circular materials, with a low environmental impact due to its lightweight, low CO2 emissions and high recycling rates. PET packaging helps keep food safe and decrease food waste due to longer shelf life and transportability.
If packaging is properly designed and collection/sorting schemes are optimised, as stated in the video, PET can be the ultimate star of the circular economy. At PETcore Europe we are working together with our around 100 members from the entire PET packaging value chain to overcome the mentioned challenges and push PET recycling up to 100%. Used PET packaging has to be valorised instead of ending up in the environment. It is PETcore Europe's objective to make this happen and we support our member RETAL in this endeavour towards a circular economy.”
RETAL would like to thank our valued customers for their positive response to our latest campaign, and are delighted to see how many stakeholders are just as committed to creating a supporting a circular economy that is sustainable for companies, consumers and the environment.
Creating reliable, responsible preforms and closures drives RETAL’s cooperation with beverage brands around the world. Collaborating with many of the world’s leading FMCG brands keeps RETAL leading the way when it comes to cost-effective, high volume PET and rPET preforms, closures and films, with its deep understanding of the latest regulations and trends allowing this packaging solutions company to consistently bring quality and flexibility to its customers.
RETAL cooperates with Spendrups Bryggeri AB, the largest and most well-known independent family-owned Swedish brewery, which produces, imports, and distributes alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages across Sweden’s unique drinks’ industry. Established in 1897, Spendrups is managed by the fourth-generation of the founding family and is ‘convinced that a proactive approach to sustainability is crucial’; an approach that RETAL is proud to share.
Since 2005, Spendrups has been a valued partner to RETAL, thanks to its provision of preforms and closures for its best-selling Loka carbonated water brand, which is the market leader in carbonated water in Sweden, and the world-recognised Heineken beer, which it license brews. RETAL supplies three preform sizes and one type of closure to Spendrups, providing packaging solutions for both beer, water and soda for this ISO 14001 company.
RETAL Sales Director Rimvydas Bazinys works closely with Spendrups’ Purchaser Bjorn Deborg to ensure that the solutions created meet the strict requirements of this Stockholmbased Group. Bazinys explains how the companies started their mutually-beneficial relationship,
saying, “Working with Bjorn and the Spendrups team is a very positive experience as they have an interesting, open company culture and they are very progressive in terms of sustainability. The infrastructure and Swedish mindset around collection and recycling is so strong, it’s an inspiration. It shows what is possible with the right circumstances.”
Read the full version on Drinkworld Technology & Martketing
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Ensuring the circularity of plastics - all plastics - is key to the future of the industry.
And rightly so. We are all consumers as well as employees, we are parents, friends, children. We want to do the right thing wherever possible within our sphere of influence, from what we chose to spend our money on at lunchtime to where we go on holiday. One of the quickest, most satisfying ways to visually show how important sustainability is to us is in the products that we buy, particularly the products that other people will be aware that we've bought.
FMCG brands that use bio-based packaging are up year on year, with a recent study [1] stating that bio-based packaging was valued at USD4.65bn in 2019. Leading brands are keen to align themselves with the positive media of bio-based packaging, with smaller brands using it to connect with Millennials and differentiate themselves on crowded supermarket shelves [2].
Read the full version on Sustainable Plastics
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Trusted partners enable development over and above what individual companies can do alone. With the right support, service and communication, partners across the supply chain are hugely valued and much appreciated.
For global packaging producer RETAL, finding and maintaining trusted partners is crucial to its ongoing success, with its network of suppliers able to work together with its account managers to deliver exactly what customers need, when they need it.
A recent investment in new production lines from SACMI at RETAL Baltic and a sister company is the latest development in an evolving, long-standing relationship between RETAL and the respected machinery supplier.
SACMI is an international leader in industrial plant engineering, offering a varied portfolio of machines and complete plants for industries including packaging. Headquartered in Imola, Italy, and with over 4500 employees at 80 sites worldwide, SACMI prides itself on ‘putting customer satisfaction first’.
That promise is evident in the cooperation between RETAL and SACMI. As a supplier of machines for the manufacture of plastic closures, SACMI was aware of RETAL’s positive reputation and portfolio of preforms, closures and films, initially supplying the company with two lines in 1999.
SACMI key account manager Riccardo Rubini explains, “At that time, RETAL was only using injection technology and SACMI installed only compression technology. There were a number of challenges in terms of performance and maintenance of lines, so it’s fair to say that RETAL was not properly advised; it was a 50/50 issue. Although I wasn’t part of the SACMI team that worked with RETAL then, I’ve been determined to rectify the issue and show how our production lines can reliably deliver exactly what the company needs in terms of closures.”
Read the full version in Business Focus
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Effective internal communications for a global company brings many advantages but can be hard to implement and maintain. With various stakeholders and their differing needs, creating an engaging communications strategy is an opportunity for commercial and organisational goals to be met. Global plastic packaging manufacturer RETAL shares how developing its intranet has been both more difficult and more rewarding than it expected.
For traditional manufacturing companies, the understanding of what effective communications are and why they’re necessary can be the first hurdle in developing a communications strategy. Different stakeholders can see the value of communications in opposite terms, with the ROI hard to quantify, especially in the short term. Yet the cost of poor internal communications may only be seen when it’s too late, so proposing, agreeing to, and, crucially, getting the budget for, a corporate intranet is the first hurdle.
Reducing dependence on single-use plastics is an important element in creating and maintaining a sustainable economy that crucially cuts the levels of plastic in our oceans. So what if we committed to giving up throwing away plastic for Lent and beyond?
According to a Smithers report, global plastic packaging consumption was projected at 58.6 million tonnes in 2019 and is forecast to grow during 2019-24 at an annual rate of 3.5%, to 69.8 million tonnes.
The stark truth is that plastic packaging is the lightest, cheapest, most effective, most convenient packaging, for food and beverages especially. Consumers still want convenience.
The main issue that surrounds the plastic packaging industry is the continued creation and maintenance of a joined-up collection, sorting and recycling infrastructure of used plastic packaging, allowing more recycled PET into the packaging value chain and drastically reducing the industry's need for virgin material.
RETAL's Sustainability Director Emmanuel Duffaut said: “From consumers to packaging producers, we all want to reduce our negative impact on the environment, and we all have a sphere of influence from which we can make a difference. By responsibly using plastic and committing to putting it into the correct recycling bin after use, consumers can make a huge difference as it keeps the plastic in the value chain.”
Giving up wasting and throwing away plastic packaging for Lent means consumers can be part of the circular economy, giving their plastic packaging a valuable second (and third, and fourth, and fifth...) life.
Read the article on European Plastic Product Manufacturer
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Making a personal sacrifice is considered by many to be a key part of Lent. Social media is awash with people promising to go without something they love or value to be part of the Lent conversation.
Where it used to be about perhaps chocolate or alcohol, one popular hashtag seems to promise that giving up plastic for Lent will put them on the virtuous side of life. And of course, reducing our dependence on single use plastics is an important element in creating and maintaining a sustainable economy that crucially cuts plastic in our oceans.
But could we make a more tangible difference if we committed to giving up wasting plastic for Lent? What if we committed to giving up throwing away plastic for Lent and beyond?
According to a Smithers report, global plastic packaging consumption was projected at 58.6 million tons in 2019 and is forecast to grow during 2019-24 at an annual rate of 3.5 per cent, to 69.8 million tons.
The stark truth is that plastic packaging is the lightest, cheapest, most effective, most convenient packaging, for food and beverages especially. Consumers still want convenience.
The main issue that surrounds the plastic packaging industry is the continued creation and maintenance of a joined-up collection, sorting and recycling infrastructure of used plastic packaging, allowing more recycled PET into the packaging value chain and drastically reducing the industry's need for virgin material.
RETAL's Sustainability Director Emmanuel Duffaut says, “From consumers to packaging producers, we all want to reduce our negative impact on the environment, and we all have a sphere of influence from which we can make a difference. By responsibly using plastic and committing to putting it into the correct recycling bin after use, consumers can make a huge difference as it keeps the plastic in the value chain.”
Giving up wasting and throwing away plastic packaging for Lent means consumers can be part of the circular economy, giving their plastic packaging a valuable second (and third, and fourth, and fifth...) life.
Read the article in Manufacturing Journal
Read the article in Business Focus
Read / download the article in PDF
Plastic packaging has a sustainable future. Delivering effective, circular packaging solutions that are both convenient for consumers and don’t negatively impact the planet is a challenge packaging manufacturers and global food and beverage brands are stepping up to.
Global plastic packaging manufacturer RETAL is committed to continuing its journey to a more sustainable future.
Utilising the widely-accepted Measure-Mitigate-Compensate approach, RETAL is integrating a Circular Economy Strategy across its operations worldwide, driven by Sustainability Director Emmanuel Duffaut.
Duffaut says, “I can count on the strong and positive support of the RETAL Board of Directors to address the huge challenges the packaging industry is facing as a whole in terms of improving environmental performance approach and for RETAL to tackle climate change, which is our largest direct environmental impact.”
The company has published its first Sustainability Report to actively boost its CSR global performance, setting baseline figures to quantify future mitigation efforts. Duffaut adds, “Our carbon footprint shows that energy consumption is by far the main contributor to our process GHG emissions, so energy efficiency is crucial to our climate change strategy. We have already gained the ISO 50001 accreditation at two of our factories and we are now looking at deploying a certified company-wide common energy management system.”
RETAL purchases as much certified renewable electricity as possible, with its Lithuanian, Italian, Czech, French and US factories already sourcing up to 100% of their electricity from renewable sources, and solar panels at both its Cyprus and Lentvaris facilities. RETAL is also actively working at increasing the use of recycled raw material in its preforms, which has a much lower carbon footprint than virgin material, not only in Europe in compliance with the SUP directive but also across its global operations.
The company gained a B score from the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), and increased its global EcoVadis evaluation from 45% to 51%, taking it to Silver standard. Duffaut says, “These are good results as they show that we are taking climate change, and CSR at large, seriously, and doing what needs to be done, but there is still much to be done to reach the A score with CDP and increase our EcoVadis score to Gold, which is our ultimate goal.”
Plastic packaging has a sustainable future. Delivering effective, circular packaging solutions that are both convenient for consumers and don’t negatively impact the planet is a challenge packaging manufacturers and global food and beverage brands are stepping up to.
But plastic packaging has a terrible public perception. Hashtags like #plasticfree and #noplastic abound on social media. The plastic industry is facing both the emotional issue of consumers influencing brands to move away from plastic, and the technical issue of insufficient infrastructure to collect, sort and recycle plastic waste.
Yet while alternative packaging materials may be more socially acceptable, are they really “better”? Will the current popularity of alternatives to plastic be short-lived, thanks to their depletion of natural resources and negative environmental impact, including larger greenhouse gas emissions?
Global Forest Watch reports that “40 per cent of global deforestation is commodity driven”, with paper packaging a contributing factor. From 2001 to 2018, 361 million hectares of trees were destroyed, equivalent to a 9 per cent reduction of the world’s forests [1]. Over the same period, paper consumption increased by 26 per cent, with 55 per cent of its volume attributed to packaging [2].
Glass packaging production also negatively impacts on the environment. The proportion of silica – the mineral known as quartz sand – in the manufacture of glass is about 70 per cent. Studies on the natural reserves of silica indicate that extraction and high consumption of this mineral damages the environment and leads to the depletion of its reserves. Moreover, the high melting point of the material in glass packaging production is a source of significant CO2 emissions, and impacts negatively on climate change.
PET packaging is the most popular choice for mineral water, still and carbonated drinks, beer, dairy products, and vegetable oils. PET is also widely used in medicine as well as cosmetics and household chemicals. It is cheap, light, easily moulded and branded, non-breakable, has high barrier properties and does not impair the product’s quality. Thanks to these advantages, the consumption of plastic packaging continues to grow. According to a Smithers report, global plastic packaging consumption was projected at 58.6 million tonnes in 2019 and is forecast to grow during 2019-24 at an annual rate of 3.5 per cent, to 69.8 million tonnes [3]. According to Euromonitor International research, the total share of plastic packaging is about 60 per cent of the entire packaging market.
While studies show that consumers prefer this type of packaging, it is necessary to find multifaceted solutions to show that plastic can be both convenient and sustainable. In most European countries, PET is already widely recyclable in standard collections, giving it a valuable second life as recycled PET, or rPET.
Global PET and rPET packaging producer RETAL* has more than 20-years of expertise in plastics manufacturing, and is increasingly active in circular economy initiatives and the promotion of public awareness of used PET packaging. Anatoly Martynov, President of RETAL, asserts that how we manage plastic packaging beyond its first use underpins everything and impacts everyone. Insufficient understanding by consumers of their responsibilities for the disposal of used packaging and poor collection infrastructure can both lead to serious problems of environmental pollution. In addition, the long-term payback period of recycling projects is the reason for the insufficient development of the recycling industry.
The goal for every PET packaging company is to minimise its negative environmental impact. RETAL works closely with its global customers to ensure that its packaging meets the strictest criteria. The company is also active in various sustainability-driven plastic packaging value chain organisations, including PETcore, the Circular Plastics Alliance and Waste Free Oceans.
On the technical side, RETAL has developed the capacity and expertise to produce preforms from up to 100 per cent recycled PET, and continuously works towards creating innovative, patented “design to recycle” solutions that use lightweighting and tethered closures.
NEO GROUP, part of RETAL Industries, is also actively involved in the implementation of the circular economy. One of its main projects is the launch of a production line that will produce PET resin containing rPET. The first phase is planned to be completed in 2020. With consistent investment in additional lines planned over the next five years, the recycling of used PET bottles at NEO Group is expected to reach 4.5 billion units per year. Thanks to the new lines, a significant share of the European market’s demand for recycled content will be produced by NEO.
Since 2015, NEO GROUP** has participated in the Horizon 2020 program, which promotes greater resource efficiency and reduced environmental impact for waste by developing beneficial workflow for recycled materials, industrial by-products and by using rPET. Since 2018, programme participants, including NEO GROUP, have been actively working on chemical recycling. This technology will boost the ability to recycle “contaminated” PET, which cannot currently be recycled using mechanical methods. Practically 100 per cent of used PET can be chemically recycled, and it can be recycled unlimited times. This is a revolutionary technology that truly supports the circular economy.
All these factors come together to illustrate how RETAL is active in closing the loop, contributing to environmentally responsible solutions and meeting the requirements of the EU Single-Use Plastics Directive.
While no single business can effectively tackle climate change or solve the problem of environmental pollution by itself, a joined-up approach to plastics circular economy that takes into consideration all the relevant stakeholders will allow PET packaging to realise its true value, and change its negative perception to a positive potential.
The article and video on Forbes
The article and video on Business Reporter
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