Emsur, division of the Spanish packaging group Grupo Lantero, has become the latest company to join CEFLEX, a consortium of European companies that promotes the circularity of flexible packaging.
With well over 130 members across the entire flexible packaging value chain, CEFLEX is seeking to set out a clear route towards arriving at a circular economy model by 2025.
The first step will be a road map for flexible packaging based on sustainability and the circular economy which, amongst other aspects, will includes guidelines on design, added value and resource efficiency. This road map, to be developed and implemented in 2020, will be available to all interested parties, not just members of the consortium.
To that end, two other projects are already under way, both aimed at providing a good basis to achieve the objectives set by the consortium for 2020 and 2025 at the European level. The REFLEX project studies solutions to the technical barriers in mechanical recycling of post-consumer flexible packaging and FIACE, analyses the added value of flexible packaging for the circular economy.
For Emsur, joining CEFLEX is ‘a step forward’ in the company’s commitment to achieving a sustainable future for flexible packaging based on a circular model.
To date, Emsur has focused its efforts in this area on the eco-design and the recyclability of its packaging, with as latest innovation, its compostable barrier bag. Together with sister company Coexpan, it is also part of the Circular Plastics Alliance initiative, which aims to boost the circular economy of plastics by promoting the use of recycled material and quality recycling processes.
CEFLEX plans to develop an infrastructure for the collection, sorting and reprocessing of flexible post-consumer packaging throughout the whole of Europe by 2025.By participating in the project, ‘we contribute to developing the necessary infrastructure to recycle flexible packaging and to promote its circularity’, commented Alberto Gallardo, CEO of Emsur.