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
Links
Demographic and Lifestyle Trends Driving Rigid Plastic Packaging Market Growth
Global plastic packaging manufacturer RETAL shows its vocal sustainability commitment is rapidly heading in the right direction with an over 13% increase in its EcoVadis score in just one year.
To achieve this increase, RETAL has implemented a range of actions, including a company-wide Sustainable Procurement Programme, which has led to a 6-point increase in the latest EcoVadis score, taking RETAL to within the top 25% of companies assessed.
Read / download the whole article.
More related news.
Global plastic packaging manufacturer Retal states that its vocal sustainability commitment is heading in the right direction with an over 13% increase in its EcoVadis score in just one year.
According to Retal’s Sustainability Director Emmanuel Duffaut, the score is the latest milestone in the company’s ongoing focus on a multi-stakeholder, value chain approach to ensuring its plastic packaging is as sustainable, responsible and transparent as possible.
Read / download the whole article.
Closures are literally the backstop of preforms. With the perfect preform only as good as its closure, one knows that a closure has many responsibilities, from ease of opening to effective protection of the product within. Closures need to perform in partnership with the preform, both from an application and an environmental perspective. Even if a closure is consumer- and product-friendly, recent legislation on tethered closures highlight how crucial it is that designs are also in accordance with the circular economy.
The EU directive on Single Use Plastics in May 2019 highlighted design requirements to connect caps to bottles from 2024, with regulations extending from the Circular Plastics Alliance launched in December 2018 by the European Commission. This high-level, multi-stakeholder platform gathers the complete plastics value chain to ensure the responsible progression of plastic packaging throughout its entire lifecycle.
Read / download the whole article.
Global plastic packaging manufacturer RETAL shows its vocal sustainability commitment is rapidly heading in the right direction with an over 13% increase in its EcoVadis score in just one year.
To achieve this increase, RETAL has implemented a range of actions, including a company-wide Sustainable Procurement Programme, which has led to a 6-point increase in the latest EcoVadis score, taking RETAL to within the top 25% of companies assessed. Transparency through the publication of RETAL's first CSR report, the third-party verification of its corporate carbon footprint, its participation to CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project) climate change survey (B score), and the establishment of partnerships in the plastic circular economy have also played a significant role.
RETAL's Sustainability Director Emmanuel Duffaut is clear that the score is the latest milestone in the company's global objective to integrate CRS, in a multi-stakeholder, value chain approach to ensuring its plastic packaging solutions are as sustainable, responsible and transparent as possible, and continue to be the preferred partner to its customers.
EcoVadis is 'the world's most trusted provider of business sustainability ratings, intelligence and collaborative performance improvement tools for global supply chains' and is widely used by global companies as a platform to assess their suppliers’ CSR performance and identify risks in their supply chains.
Duffaut says, “In our first Sustainability Report, published in 2019, we clearly set out our intention to reach a total EcoVadis score of 65% by 2022 (advanced level), and I'm proud to say that this latest score shows we are well on target to achieve it. We went from Bronze to Silver in one year, so we are going for Gold by 2022!”
Duffaut continues, “EcoVadis is an efficient way to demonstrate our CSR performance to our customers but also to the rest of our stakeholders, and it is also a tool for improvement. It's a welcome, recognised method of proving that global manufacturers have achieved and continue to achieve a high level of performance. As a Silver level EcoVadis score company, RETAL can quickly communicate to our global food and beverage brand customers that we meet their strict requirements.”
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.
Producing the perfect preform is part of a work in progress; a circular and sustainable preform that allows consumers to enjoy convenience and brands to reduce their environmental impact needs stakeholders across the packaging value chain to take responsibility for their sphere of influence. For preform producers, understanding that their sphere of influence is active on both macro and micro levels means that producing the perfect preform is an exciting challenge.
When it comes to develop preforms, global plastic packaging producer Retal draws in experts from design, recycling and production. These experts come both from within the company and from its vast network of multinational food and beverage brands. The core of a perfect preform lies in valuing the circularity of plastics packaging, states the company: rather than seeing the preform as a one-use unit, it should be seen as a potential source of ongoing value.
Global PET, rPET and HDPE packaging producer RETAL presented its innovative tethered closures at this month's BrauBeviale trade show.
Suitable for water, carbonated soft drinks and aseptic products, tethered closures from RETAL manage to connect the two key industry drivers of sustainability and convenience, enabling its global beverage brand customers to stay in line with the latest EU directive for single use plastics.
Tethered closures increase collection and reduce waste by keeping the closure attached to the bottle. The RETAL tethered closures also provide enhanced convenience for consumers thanks to the clever way in which it opens, creating a smooth contact.
Aleksandr Kachanov, R&D director at RETAL, explains, “We gained the patent certificates in June 2019 for our tethered closures. RETAL is one of very few closure manufacturers that has developed and invested in this special solution – it's the embodiment of the RETAL dedication to creating responsible solutions that are user-friendly. It's not just a response to the EU SUP Directive, our tethered closures aide consumer convenience as they're easy and comfortable to use.”
RETAL packaging development expert Anton Sugoniaev adds, “Thanks to our clever design, our brand owner customers and bottlers are unlikely to need investment in new solutions when they chose tethered closures from RETAL as we utilise our existing injection moulding equipment.”
Initially created for the standard 1881 caps, the RETAL tethered closure portfolio will extend across its range. Kachanov, the inventor of the patent, adds, “We will deliver tethered closures with the same impressive performance soon for virtually all our closure range”.
RETAL’s Sustainability Director Emmanuel Duffault also explains how the new tethered closures help to support the company’s progressive CSR goals, which includes design-to-recycle and use of recycled material, saying, “We have employees worldwide and we are all conscious of and worried about the negative environmental impact of our products. Tethered closures are part of our effort towards a circular economy as they mean that the HDPE closure is not separated from the plastic bottle and so is less likely to cause additional plastic pollution.”
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.”