Sustainable packaging production for the future.
NextBag™: less emissions, more quality.
26 million tons of plastic waste are produced in Europe every year and 400 million tons of CO2 are emitted into the atmosphere coming from the production of vergin plastics and from incineration of their own waste. Data to which you have to add the 570,000 tons of plastic that end up in the Mediterranean every year causing damages for 641 million euros per year. Of all these plastic wastes, the European average of those collected for recycling, is only 30%. Such a small percentage means big losses both for the economy and the environment. It is estimated that 95% of the plastic packaging materials value is lost in the economy after a very short first use cycle. Now the European Union, in a view of industrial sustainability and reduction of environmental impact, has decided to impose that all plastic packaging will be recyclable by 2030. This is why redefining the future of the industrial packaging today is not just a choice, but a necessity.
NextBag™ is located in this scenario, the new sustainable production cycle that Selene has developed using recycled plastics of controlled quality and to which Selene has dedicated a whole factory. This is a new production plant for the recovery of used plastic material giving it a second life, that uses a technology capable to produce PRP Premium Recycled Polymer – the new type of PE raw material granule with a minimal impact on the environment and a quality very similar to 100% virgin polymers.
Our target? A production of quality flexible packaging that aims to drastically reduce CO2 emissions and the extraction of fossil products necessary for the production of vergin plastic.
NextBag™: smart circularity
NextBag™ provides a circular production cycle which respects the needs of the environment and consumers through the recovery and use of a new regenerated raw material of superior quality: PRP – Premium Recycled Polymer. In order to obtain the PRP, the NextBag cycle takes place in three phases:
1. RECOVERY – Recovery of the packaging material used by suppliers, customers and collecting points.
2. RECYCLING - recycling and production of high quality raw material: PRP
3. REUSE - Reuse of PRP – Premium Recycled Polymer - for production of sustainable and high-performance packaging
A supply chain that Selene has been able to achieve only after years of internal experimentation and thanks to close cooperation with raw material suppliers and manufactures of packaging machines. In addition to drastically reducing the environmental impact, this circular approach even meets the market’s expetations of quality finished product effectively.
1. RECOVERY
The first step is to recover the used material that has been properly separated and stored at customer’s plants and collection centers as plastic waste (CER015012). Selene periodically collects used packaging for return to our plant where the used material is checked to ensure it qualifies for the subsequent recycling process.
2. RECYCLING
The flexible packaging used, after having been carefully selected and checked, passes to the recycling phase. The process initially involves the grinding and subsequent washing in special deinker using water based solent-free detergents. The material is then rinsed and dryed.
All steps involve a minimal production waste which is absolutely irrelevant. The process is optimized by the water treatment aimed to reducing waste and consuption of water and energy.
The obtained material passes to the regranulation phase in order to give a new life to what, once verified by the SQR- Selene Quality Recycling, will be approved as PRP – Premium Recycled Polymer, as an unique regenerated, sustainable and high quality raw material.
3. REUSE
The PRP - Premium Recycled Polymer – is a recycled polymer of extreme high quality with such characteristics that can replace in increasing percentages the 100% virgin raw materials inside the packaging.
The PRP – Premium Recycled Premium is in fact used in the middle layer of the blown film coextrusion technology for production of any flexible packaging and this enables Selene to completely review the product recipe and to drastically reduce the environmental impact accordingly.
Today Selene can produce FFS tubes, open mouth bags, valve bags, Ventilene and FFS film with combinations that provide inside the film up to 50% of PRP Premium Recycled Polymer with the purpose of reaching 80% shortly.
But not only: even the extreme hight quality of PRP, combined with the production and technological experience of Selene, enables to reduce the film thickness up to 40% for the same product to be packed and this provides a conseguent weight reduction of packaging and a further attitude to sustainability in terms of resources used and ecological impact.
NextBag™: oltre le aspettative della comunità Europea NextBag: beyond the expetations of the European Union
The NextBag™ production approach is the concrete answer to the environmental protection needs of our time and perfectly meets the Plastic Strategy developed by the European Union, as well as it accepts the commitment of the CIRCULAR PLASTIC ALLIANCE which aims to achieve 10 million tons of recycled plastic for new production by 2025.
