At Evertis Ibérica, the company’s purpose has been achieved to the fullest extent. Evertis Ibérica, located in Portugal, is a subsidiary of Control PET, a group pioneer in the field of PET film extrusion with more than fifty years of experience.
Since the beginning, Evertis set ambitious recycling goals and strategies to promote a circular economy of their products and minimize the company’s waste. Evertis’ philosophy is that issues, such as landfilling, cannot be left for governments to solve alone; hence they believe in a duty to create environmentally friendly packaging solutions and challenge their stakeholders to effectively address these concerns.
The group began recycling from the time the business was founded, in 1959, but it was in 2002 that their recycling ambitions took on a dynamic dimension, with the start-up of their own recycling plant. Built on the same industrial site as Evertis Ibérica, this plant has significantly contributed to the recycling of post-consumer PET in Portugal, at times recovering more than 90% of post-consumer PET bottles from the Portuguese waste stream. Partnering with non-profit organizations, producer compliance programs and customers, the volume of recovery has grown to 8,755 tons of post-consumer PET recycled in-house last year.
Two categories of PET flake emerge from this process: clear/light blue flake and green flake. Green flake is sold to authorized recycling companies who resell them for applications where clarity is less critical, while one hundred percent of the clear/light blue flake is consumed by Evertis Ibérica for film production. Additionally, Evertis Ibérica sources and reincorporates PET flake beyond the internally recovered quantities which is produced and converted in the international market and some domestic suppliers
To further enhance their recycling goals, Evertis Ibérica partnered with a company that has researched and developed a unique technological process to recycle multilayer PET, making it possible to reincorporate recycled PET from Evertis’ multi-layered films back into the production cycle.
As food companies become more committed to environmental issues, several of Evertis Ibérica’s customers have joined the initiative and have invested in equipment for the disposal of multilayered PET by-product at their plants. This involves a process whereby the trim and off-cut film is collected and processed by Evertis’ partner, creating reusable RPET from the complex films.
In the past multilayered PET could not be recycled and was added to the waste stream. Now, as a result of this innovation, a new realm of possibilities has arisen in the plastic industry. Cost reduction by eliminating landfill volumes combined with the significant environment benefits through source reduction and reuse, make this a win for all with long term and recurring positive impact. Circular economy has become a reality for Evertis, whereby PET from their films is reintroduced into the next chain of production.
Following, the company’s sustainable focus, Evertis incorporates recycled material into the production of their products, whenever the application allows, while meeting all customer requirements Evertis strives for maximum quality of the PET flake production and counts on a high-tech EREMA recycling system that has EFSA approval for food contact, for films with up to 100% of recycled PET composition.
Evertis has instituted a strict waste management and reuse policy, reincorporating virtually one hundred percent of waste produced in the extrusion and slitting processes. This also includes scrap produced during equipment changeovers, auto-cleaning of filters, machine stops and restarts.
Evertis’ philosophy to reuse resources was key to the group’s constant focus on recycling. It’s their belief that recycling is a great waste-management strategy, whereby environmental impact and resource depletion are reduced. With their principals based on high levels of recycling, Evertis paired their reuse or remanufacturing efforts to lower levels of material usage and energy. Within this framework of sustainable development, Evertis is not only providing a partial solution to solid waste problems, but also contributing to reduction of energy and raw petrochemicals consumption.
It is also of importance to mention Evertis Ibérica’s use of environmentally friendly adhesives in their lamination process. It was their eco-friendly goals that made them pioneers in the field of lamination resulted in their alliance with their recycling partner, which would not have been possible if this technology wasn’t in place.
Evertis’ commitment to being environmentally conscious and responsible has been present since their beginnings. Most importantly it is their ambition to continually challenge and update their environmental goals, that has made their products fit for the future.
