Sustainability & Environment

What does the OPACKGROUP do about sustainability and environment?

The OPACKGROUP has grown through innovation, focusing on quality, circularity and collaboration with all other parties in the chain. Collaboration is also crucial to sustainability. Due to all the developments in the market, there is an overkill of sustainable information, and this makes things complicated.

That is why, as OPACKGROUP, we are consciously involved as a knowledge partner in various executive roles, within and outside our field of business. Our slogan ‘The sustainable innovator’ demonstrates that we are very serious about this vision for the future. How do we do it? By really focusing on six areas of interest. This way, we get closer to sustainable plastic packaging, step by step.

Our sustainability strategy focusses on creating IMPACT: Innovation, Members, Partners, Ambassadorship, Climate-impact and Transparency.

Innovation: Sustainability is the key focus of our innovation programme. We work with the Rethink Plastics strategy with as themes Re-duce, Re-use, Re-cycle, Re-design and Re-new.
Members: We invest in the development of our employees with new education and training programs as part of the OPACKGROUP Academy (OKAY).
Partners: Mutual, long term relationships with our suppliers and customers is key in driving innovation and customer service.
Ambassadorship: To drive (sustainable) change and continuous improvement of the packaging industry as a whole we are consciously investing in board membership. Hence we are supplying about 20 board positions in branch and other organisations to promote and improve the value-chain cooperation.
Climate Impact: We monitor and reduce our climate impact. Examples include the use of green electricity, the efforts to reduce energy in processes and all new company cars are electric or plug in hybrid.
Transparency: We are transparent on company results: our sustainability achievements are monitored externally, validated in our quality certificates.

Of course, we are prepared to offer personal advice based on our sustainable vision, through one of our product managers or our sustainability executive, Rob Verhagen..

Sustainability

A sustainable development is a development that is aligned with the current necessities, without endangering the capacity of future generations to provide for their own needs, as stated in the definition of the UN Brundtland commission in 1987. Actually, sustainable business operations have an environmental background.

Environment

As manufacturers, we are aware of the effects of our production of plastic materials on the environment. Within the OPACKGROUP we have our own recycling capacity to recycle the film and transform it to polyethylene granulates again. These granulates are used to produce new film. Therefore, not a granule is lost in the OPACKGROUP, the environment is less burdened and this also reduces production costs! Furthermore, all the companies in the group use green (renewable) energy.

The Kennisinstituut Duurzaam Verpakken (KIDV), the Dutch expert center for sustainable packaging, has developed a document that clarifies the practice of separating packaging materials. This document describes the way packaging materials have to be separated after use, and how to explain this to consumers, possibly with logos.

Ready to Recycle

Recyclability of packaging materials is an important instrument in the transition to a sustainable economy. Through its packaging portfolio, the OPACKGROUP focuses on developing its packaging products with as much recyclability as possible. For example, the manufacturer in Giessen has opened a plant in 2022, where everything is geared towards producing sustainable packaging. This offers a choice between an innovative and more sustainable alternative versus the regular film qualities. This new film quality is 100% recyclable.

This comprises alternatives for laminated or barrier films with PA, PVDC or PET, and aluminum film. With Ready to Recycle films you are assured that the film quality is 100% recyclable.

We believe in recycling plastic packaging, especially now the technology involving waste collection has become ever more advanced. With this step towards Ready to Recycle we are in alignment with the path we chose with Rethink Plastics. This further develops the ‘Re’ features in Re-cycle and Re-design.

Ellen MacArthur Foundation

The OPACKGROUP has high sustainable ambitions. For our product portfolio, this specifically means that for all customer solutions we strive for products that are circular: well recyclable, with as little use of materials as possible and, if possible, with the application of recyclate or bio-based materials. In doing so, we prevent waste and reduce our carbon footprint. We are therefore proud to contribute to the goals of the “New Plastics Economy” and to be a member of the network of companies supporting the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. This organization is the largest network dedicated to building a circular economy. We did this first as a signatory of the Plastic Pact, and now as part of the global community! Chain thinking is crucial to ensure that we leave this world better for the next generation.

Rethink Plastics

RETHINK PLASTICS and the sustainability plan for materials are the basis for making the chain more sustainable. The OPACKGROUP is a proud partner of the Rethink Plastics program, and co-author of the sustainability plan for materials. The plan is drawn up as a roadmap. The Roadmap describes five directions that lead towards further sustainability: Re-duce, Re-use, Re-cycle, Re-design and Re-new. Simultaneous work in all these directions, through small steps and ongoing innovation, ensures that successful changes can be realized.

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