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Description
Estiko-Plastar is a leading manufacturer of packaging solutions in the Baltics, partnering with companies that value sustainable and innovative solutions in the food industry and elsewhere. Generally, packaging solutions available today for the food industry are made of either metal, e.g., aluminium/tin cans), glass (e.g., glass jars), paper (paper and cardboard packages) or plastics (a wide variety of different purposed packages). Out of these four, plastic is the most commonly used material for packaging food produce, because it is cost efficient, lightweight but strong, has the best barrier properties in terms of being water and airproof and it can be combined with other materials to change their barrier properties. However, plastic packages in general are less eco-friendly because they are usually produced from crude oil and are less likely to be recycled than other materials, due to plastic packages usually consisting of many different layers of polymers (plastics).
The Green ICT project tackles this aforementioned problem, hence the focus is on developing the capability of producing environmentally friendly packages that are made from eco-friendly reusable or compostable plastic materials (such as mono-material packages and bio based polymers), which would replace rigid plastic packaging such as plastic containers, canisters, bottles, boxes, packs, and others. This will help reduce the CO2 emissions required to produce a package and the required amount of plastic for each package, increasing sustainability and helping reduce plastic waste. Project also contributes in lowering the ecological footprint of Estiko Plastar’s production processes by modernising the production machinery and processes with modern, resource and energy efficient machines, while also increasing the percentage of production scraps being reused in the production processes.
Summary of project results
The project contributed to the reduction of packaging waste and the CO2 footprint of packaging production through the development of resource-saving vacuum bag products and the modernisation of production.
New technology was applied as part of the project: a new printing machine was purchased, an additional plastic regranulation plant was installed to increase recycling. In addition, a laser cleaning plant was purchased for environmentally friendly cleaning of aniloxes used in printing machines, the existing afterburner was expanded, and developments were implemented in the business software for more economical use of resources.
As a result of the project, company''s product portfolio now includes three types of vacuum bags. The advantages of the new vacuum packaging are durability and shape retention, and less material is used to make them. In addition, the Digimarc is integrated into the bag material, which makes it easier to identify and then sort the packaging material. The CO₂ footprint of such pouch-type bags is about 10 grams of emissions per 100 grams of product. This is half the amount of a plastic bottle and seven times less than a glass bottle.