RENOLIT Goes Circular – our path to the circular economy
Plastics shape our modern life more than any other material. They are lightweight, durable, flexible and versatile. But the growing volume of plastic products worldwide that are disposed of as “waste” after their often short-lived use has become a threat to people, their environment and the climate. As one of the leading manufacturers of high-quality plastic films and related products, we are facing up to our responsibilities too: with our commitment to a more circular economy, we are helping to continue to preserve the foundations and quality of life for current and future generations on Earth. You can find out exactly what this means here.
Paradigm shift from a linear to circular economy
The linear economy
So far, global economic systems have been characterized by the linear economy. It is defined by a “take, make and dispose” approach. The return of products after use, recycling or reuse of the raw materials used play a subordinate role. The more products are manufactured, the more valuable raw materials are needed and disposed of as “waste” at the end of a product life cycle. As raw material consumption grows, so does energy demand, increasing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
In the meantime, we know that the limited resources of our planet are not sufficient for the linear economic strategy in the long run.
This realization has led to a paradigm shift in many areas in recent years, ushering in an era of circular economy to protect the living conditions for humans on Earth. By conserving and intelligently using resources, the circular economy has the potential to reduce the global consumption of raw materials by 28 percent and greenhouse gas emissions by 39 percent. 1
It is therefore an important strategy for limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees – a goal which some 194 countries have committed to as part of the 2015 UN climate agreement in Paris.2
The circular economy
The circular economy is an economic strategy that respects planetary boundaries and helps implement the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The circular economy starts with product design and aims to use resources and energy as efficiently as possible, to extend the life of products, to enable repair or multiple uses, and to plan directly for recycling at the end of a product’s life cycle so that the raw materials can be incorporated into new products. This prevents valuable resources such as plastics from becoming waste and polluting the environment. Wherever feasible, renewable raw materials should also be used instead of fossil raw materials in order to reduce climate-damaging emissions.
The “RENOLIT Goes Circular” initiative
To conserve resources and protect our environment, we have made a commitment to the Circular Plastics Alliance (CPA) to become a more circular economy. Admittedly: we still have to overcome many challenges ahead on our path to accomplishing this. As this initiative focuses on the entire product life cycle in order to achieve sustainability and close the material and energy cycle as far as possible. Below you can find a summary of our targets and action that we have collated under the umbrella of our “RENOLIT Goes Circular” initiative in order to operate a circular economy in the long term.
Design
We will already pay attention to achieving the longest possible service life and thinking about the subsequent recovery and recycling of the raw material in the product design stage in future. Many of our products are already 100 percent recyclable today.
In addition, we will selectively expand our product portfolio with new products and applications that have a higher recyclate content in order to be able to incorporate recyclables as far as possible. To this end, we will also enter into collaborations and promote the transfer of knowledge.
As an innovation driver, we are working on developing and manufacturing products with new properties and corresponding added value.
Ressources
We mainly use materials such as polymers (plastics), esters, additives, color pigments, fillers and printing inks. The recyclable materials generated during production are fed back into the production process wherever this is technically feasible.
Where feasible and permitted by law, we want to replace fossil raw materials with biologically produced raw materials without the use of (fossil) oil and gas.
In all areas of our operations - from production and the administration of our company to mobility and logistics - we will examine and implement measures that lead to a reduction in emissions or rely on renewable energies.
Production
By further improving processes, we are trying to make even more efficient use of the materials. These recyclables are collected, sorted and fed into internal recycling. Our internal recycling rate of recyclables is around 60 percent (as of 2022). By 2025, we are committed to increasing this rate to 100 percent.
For transport packaging within Europe, too, we will only use plastic products that are either reusable or recyclable by 2025. In addition, 50 percent of the packaging material should consist of recycled or renewable raw materials.
Usage
In around 50 percent of applications, RENOLIT products are known for their durability. We want to increase this share through innovations, because the greatest CO2 savings can be achieved with long-term use. Another aspect that pays off in terms of sustainability is the fact that many of our plastic films and applications extend the service life of other products, thus enabling multiple uses. We will also take multiple use of our own products into account in innovations.
Collection and recycling
Recycling is the second best option for the environment to deal with plastic products because it conserves resources and can reduce carbon emissions. As a plastics manufacturer, we will see recycling as part of sustainable production and integrate it step-by-step into our processes.
The aim is to increase the recyclate content of our current products through innovations. This will improve the balance of our material consumption and greenhouse gas emissions even more.
In addition to the recycling of recyclable materials from our own production, we also process recyclable materials from our customers. These are collected after use, separated according to content, sorted and recycled. At the end of a long service life, however, recycling is a major challenge. We will increasingly tackle this challenge in order to enable the return of recyclable materials into the production cycle of equivalent and new products.
Our voluntary commitment to the circular economy by 2025
As a member of the Circular Plastics Alliance (CPA), RENOLIT SE has made a commitment to the CPA to achieve the following targets:
Percent of the recyclables will be recycled internally and incorporated into new or existing products.
Customer projects to take back recyclable materials will be integrated into the RENOLIT material cycle.
Percent recyclable or reusable plastic materials will be used in packaging.
Percent of recyclate or renewable raw materials will be used to make our packaging material.
Challenges and priorities on our path to a circular economy
Like any transformation, the shift from a linear to a circular economy is a highly complex task. Mastering it requires all the people who work for us, with whom we collaborate and for whom we manufacture our products to abandon old thought patterns in order to establish new processes – for a better future. On our way to achieving our goals, we encounter challenges that we face:
1. Process optimization in production
In order to operate a circular economy in future, we must optimize, reorganize and harmonize our processes worldwide to be able to exploit synergies. This task is our top priority, which is why our Operational Excellence Team focuses just on this.
2. Use of the latest recycling technologies
We recycle residual materials at the point of origin wherever possible.
In addition, we have been operating our own recycling plants at our sites for several years. In comparison to PET bottles, for example, which consist of a single raw material, RENOLIT films are more complex: they consist of several layers, different polymer materials or contain additives that give them special properties, are coated or firmly bonded to their carrier materials. In order to process these recyclable materials for recycling, various technologies are required, which we are researching in various co-operations:
- Extraction technologies to dissolve plasticizers out of the films
- Separation technologies to separate different polymers laminated together
- Solvent-based separation, to dissolve laquers .
However, not all raw materials can yet be recovered in this way: Due to the very long service life many of our products consist of ingredients for which recycling processes on an industrial scale do not yet exist today. Products used for medical purposes must meet the highest legal requirements and may only be recycled to a limited extent. Last but not least, taking back used products is not only a logistical task, but also a challenging one in terms of separation by recyclable groups, which we will tackle together with our customers and partners.
3. Design of new sustainable products
A major task for us is to optimize our high-quality films for recycling later on.
However, we can only achieve the highest possible recycling rate of recyclates by adding new products to our portfolio.
Long-term target: to use more sustainable resources
The high quality of our products necessitates specific requirements in terms of the quality of the raw materials. We will only succeed in obtaining the highest possible quality secondary raw materials through innovation. Where compromises are necessary for ecological reasons, we will find them together with our customers.
Footnotes
- Circle Economy, Circularity Gap Report; Global 2021 Report, p. 5
- The UN Paris Climate Agreement was adopted in December 2015 and entered into force in November 2016. It included the following key points: Reducing the global temperature increase below well below 2 degrees and working to limit it to 1.5 degrees; committing to help poor countries reduce climate-damaging emissions and adapt to climate change; taking human rights into account in combating climate change; taking measures to improve resilience to climate change; committing industrialized countries to set concrete targets for reducing CO2 emissions; and increasing climate targets over time.
The Paris Agreement