Approval of the SPBack project presented in the call for projects to promote the circular economy of the Waste Agency of Catalonia.
The Waste Agency of Catalonia has published the final resolution of the proposals submitted in the call for projects to promote the circular economy in 2022. The objective of this line of aid is to promote "projects to accelerate the transition to a circular economy in Catalonia, improve efficiency in the use of material resources and decouple overall economic development from resource consumption".
Within the framework of this call, the Packaging Cluster accompanied three partner companies (Contolpack, Ecogots and IP Triana) in the preparation and presentation of proposals for innovative projects in the field of the circular economy.
One of these projects is SPBack, promoted by Controlpack, one of the main distributors of stretch film at the national level. With the implementation of this initiative, the possibility of activating recovery circuits for the stretch film distributed by the company will be evaluated, as well as the possibility of carrying out a pilot project with a client to activate film recovery through reverse logistics, find LDPE film recyclers and contextualize possible tax deductions for film recovery.
Low-density polyethylene (also known as LDPE) is a thermoplastic polymer of the olefinic group, consisting of multiple ethylene units. Its strength is its flexibility. In addition, it is highly resistant to impact and to different thermal and chemical conditions. Although it is a recyclable plastic, this material, like all virgin plastics (recyclable or not), is not exempt from the recently imposed state-wide plastic tax.
That is why Controlpack seeks to offer a reverse logistics system once the material they supply is used, allowing the company to solve two major recycling challenges:
(i) Volume. In many cases, some materials are not recycled because not enough volume of the material in question is collected, and (ii) Knowledge of the material and homogeneity. The company knows the composition of its material well and, since it is imported and handled by them, it has the same characteristics.
Although the recycling of materials at industrial level does not currently provide the certification that allows the tax deduction, the project is a step forward in the circular economy roadmap set out in the new guidelines. In addition, the new Royal Decree on packaging and industrial waste makes reference to bonuses for cycle closure, recovery or recycling systems, and establishes the need to adhere to Individual or Collective Systems of Extended Responsibility of the Waste Producer (SIRAP/SCRAP).
Controlpack's track record in the field of sustainability has so far been aligned with packaging optimization and film reduction in pallet application. The company offers a technical service to customer companies for advice on the optimized application of plastic film. Therefore, Controlpack acts as a technological supplier in pallet coating systems and focuses its R&D&I activity on the introduction of new technical materials, such as films with nanoparticles that increase their resistance by minimizing the amount of plastic applied to the pallet.
In addition, one of the company's star products is servitization. Controlpack is dedicated to the distribution of film and machinery, but also offers a "pay per use" system , i.e. machines at zero cost in exchange for the use of its own film.
As a distributor of packaging material and specialized machinery for its application, Controlpack has been working with its main customers since 2013 with a distribution model based on servitization. Under this way of working, the system called "Pay per Use" offers its customers the free transfer of machinery in exchange for the exclusive purchase of stretch film. This system represents a great environmental impact from the point of view of savings in film application, since Controlpack machinery manages to stabilize the amount of film applied with savings of 30% compared to manual applications. It also leads to an increase in the life cycle of the machinery, where Controlpack at all times safeguards the ownership of the machine, performs adequate maintenance and regulates the extension of use through the introduction in second-hand markets.
All this allows them, on the one hand, to offer better advice linked to the optimization of the aforementioned material and, on the other hand, the implementation of circular systems of their materials, as this project intends to do.
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