Reduce, Recycle, Replace: SÜDPACK takes 3-pronged approach to sustainability

The company will showcase innovative packaging concepts designed with climate protection and sustainability in mind – without compromising product safety and guided by the company’s three-pronged strategy of reduce – recycle – replace.

“In the current debate over plastics, food packaging is especially in the crosshairs,” explains Johannes Remmele, Managing Director at SÜDPACK. “How to protect the environment, climate and valuable resources is an important question for the future of humanity – and we as an industry have to help find answers. Accordingly, at the FachPack 2019 our focus will clearly be on products and concepts that are at least one step ahead when it comes to sustainability.”

The Ochsenhausen-based packaging experts will be displaying the latest developments since last year’s FachPack, in the reduction, as well as the recycling and replacement of plastics. For the first time, the company is also sharing its “Roadmap for Sustainable Packaging Evolution”, representing SÜDPACK’s comprehensive commitment to more sustainable products.

Reduce: Less material – less strain on the environment
The company has made considerable progress in reducing the amount of material used, saving resources and helping to preserve the environment. Today far less granulate is required to produce the same amount of film compared to only a few years ago. Thanks to “downgauging,” film solutions are becoming thinner and thinner.

CO2 footprint: Resource efficiency and recycling
Next to downgauging, SÜDPACK also makes use of materials that can easily be recycled or that incorporate renewable raw materials. Consequently, many of our currently available foil concepts are available in the xPEP product group; based on polyolefins, they offer increased recyclability. For example, manufacturers can opt for the Safe Peel Clear xPEP, which will also be presented at the FachPack. It delivers the same proven sealing performance as its sister products, but when used in combination with PP packaging, it’s up to 96 percent recyclable. xPEP solutions for Multifol, flow wrap and Multipeel products are also available. In this variant, Multipeel xPEP concepts offer an impressive 90 percent recyclability rating on the Ecoterm scale.

“The recyclability of our plastic solutions is one essential aspect. At the same time we want to improve our independence from petroleum, so as to further reduce our films’ CO2 footprint,” says Carolin Grimbacher, Managing Director and Head of Research and Development at SÜDPACK. In the product lines “Planova” and “xpect” SÜDPACK is therefore focusing on renewable resources: cornstarch-based PLA for the Planova series, and bio-based polyethylene (PE), derived from sugarcane, for the xpect line.

The range of applications for bio-based PE and PLA at SÜDPACK continues to grow: products from the xpect line are available as MAP packs, top and bottom films, and as flow packs, and provide the same functionality as those made of conventional PE. This is a major advantage for further processing: manufacturers who choose xpect line films can continue to use their current packaging machines, and can design their products using rotogravure, flexo or digital printing just as they’ve done in the past, while enhancing their brand image with regard to sustainability at the same time.

Recycle and replace: keeping the entire supply chain in mind
SÜDPACK is not only focused on using more and more recyclable plastic. Many plastics used in film manufacturing are already being recycled or internally regranulated. “Plastic is a valuable raw material. That’s why, whenever possible, we use recycled material for our films,” says Johannes Remmele. “Needless to say, in this regard quality, product protection, and hygiene remain our topmost priorities.”
Thanks to the founding of their in-house compounding center in Schwendi, SÜDPACK will soon be able to produce its own plastic granulates. By mixing and manufacturing its own granulates, the company will be able to more precisely tailor their characteristics, and to accelerate the development process for new products. Here, one focus area will concern the treatment and further processing of secondary raw materials generated during production so as to yield regranulates. In turn, SÜDPACK will use the regranulates for its own products, creating a closed material circuit.

Moreover, all products and processes at SÜDPACK are being continually refined and improved: “Respect and innovation are the keys to improved sustainability,” claims Carolin Grimbacher. “That’s why we’re investing heavily in new technologies and techniques that will make our products even better and more sustainable.”

SÜDPACK is also at the forefront of developing new, innovative technologies for the recycling of composite plastic films: as a partner in BASF’s pilot project “ChemCycling,” the film experts recently produced the world’s first prototype package made completely of chemically recycled plastic – an important milestone on the road to 100% recyclability, even for composite films.

Visit SÜDPACK at the FachPack trade fair in Nuremberg, September 24-26, 2019, Hall 7 / Booth 242


https://www.suedpack.com/aktuelles/artikel/chemcycling/
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Image: All products of the xpect line – here the Flow Wrap xpect – are made of bio-based PE but provide the same functionality as films made of conventional PE.