Sustainability
Our commitment to sustainability
We take our responsibilities seriously when it comes to playing our part in developing a sustainable future for us all. Our sustainability strategy is guided by the UN sustainable development goals, whether it is minimizing the impact of our own processes or developing new products which increase the circularity of the industries we operate in. When it comes to product sustainability, we believe that this should be assessed holistically across the life cycle of our products and taking into account the impact on the wider value chains we operate in.
For us, sustainability starts at home with a commitment to reduce the impact of our production processes. Our sites are certified by ISO 14001 standards, and we have signed up to the Operation Clean Sweep™ pledge underlining our commitment to minimise the impact from our operations. We are proud to have achieved a gold certificate from EcoVadis who rank us in the top 5% of comparable companies when it comes to the environment, ethics, labor and human rights and sustainable procurement.
Start of Life – Minimizing our footprint
We are proud that we were the pioneers of the use of post consumer recycled content in PET films and continue to push the boundaries with research into new monomer recycling processes which will enable the use of recycled content in demanding markets such as electronics. Our range of top seal lidding films have dramatically reduced the amount of plastic used in produce packaging and in line with safe by design principles we offer halogen free alternatives in the cards and photovoltaic markets.
Performance during product life – Increasing durability and efficiency
Our packaging products enable more efficient packing processes and have helped to extend the shelf life of food, and in the photovoltaics market we are proud of our track record of protecting over 200 million modules without a single reported in field failure. Our Mylar® PET electrical insulating films are used in the most demanding applications and our customers have seen up to 30% productivity increases and significant extensions of the entire system life time. Our Melinex® PET films last up to 4 times longer than other plastic materials used in the cards market and are used in applications where product lifetime is critical such as national ID schemes.
End of Life – Moving towards a circular economy
Our products are rarely used in isolation so our aim is to optimize the end of life options for the finished products that Mylar® PET, Melinex® PET and Kaladex® PEN are used in. We have developed labels films which aid bottle washing processes enabling re-use of glass bottles, and as our products are halogen free they are inherently better designed for recycling than alternative materials such as PVC or fluorinated polymers. In the packaging industry our heat sealable lidding films have enabled a wide range of applications to move to mono PET trays from mixed plastic aiding the mechanical recycling process for rigid packaging, and we are working in a wide range of industries to develop future closed loop recycling processes which will unlock the potential of monomer recycling as the lowest cost, lowest carbon and highest yield form of chemical recycling.
Our focus on innovation and partnerships has never been more important than when addressing the huge sustainability challenges we are all collectively facing. We will need to innovate new products and business models, and this will require an even greater commitment to open collaboration across value chains.