Our Components

 

We will strive to design new products through the innovative use of renewable, reusable, recyclable and biodegradable materials. We will have a centre of excellence where we can showcase products to our customers, and provide a space for ideas to flourish into innovative new products.

Our focus and targets

  • 20% of raw materials from sustainable sources by 2025 across our polymer ranges 
  • Support a circular economy by ensuring 100% of our packaging is reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2030
  • 50% recycled content in our packaging materials by 2030

Our Progress

  • In 2022, 10.8% of our raw materials were from sustainable sources (recycled content) across our manufactured polymer ranges 
  • Our teams have developed reuse schemes for intra-company movements at our Nettetal and  Łódź sites 
  • At our Kidlington, UK site all plastic packaging is 30% recycled content

In 2020 we signed up to the Circular Plastics Alliance commitment to use at least 20% recycled content in our polymer ranges by 2025. We have made excellent progress in developing our use of recycled content during the year, with an increase to 10.8% for 2022.

Our Kidlington, UK site now includes 50% recycled content as standard across most of our LDPE product range, with a number of products achieving 98% recycled content. In 2022 our Rayong plant in Thailand moved to producing polypropylene security seals with a minimum 45% recycled content, after a successful 100 million piece trial. These new seals have now been rolled-out to all our sites globally.

By delivering this improved product through a substitution programme Essentra has helped customers reduce their carbon footprint without the need for extra investment, as the recycled material reduces product emissions by 40%. We estimate this change will avoid GHG emissions of over 1,000 tonnes of CO2e per year.

Centre of Excellence

In 2022 we invested in manufacturing infrastructure at sites in EMEA and AMERS to support our transition to using recycled content across our product range. In 2023, we are launching our Centre of Excellence to accelerate our progress. This dedicated space at our Kidlington, UK site will be used to trial a wide array of materials with sustainability benefits such as recycled and bio-based, using the latest technology.

Packaging

Packaging is an important part of our resource usage and is key to ensuring our products are delivered damage free. In 2022 we implemented a reuse scheme for cardboard packaging for product movements from our Nettetal distribution hub in Germany, avoiding the creation and recycling of over 2000 pallet boxes per year. We plan to expand this in 2023.

We have also increased the recycled content in our plastic packaging, moving to 30% recycled content at our Kidlington site. We aim to standardise our packaging globally to reduce overall volumes, and increase recycled content to reach our target of 50% by 2030.

You can read more in our 2022 Annual Report here