Investing in sustainability for plastic packaging producers takes form across departments, with the knowledge that a sustainable business means being both profitable and responsible. Understanding that the ability to create, develop and produce progressive plastic packaging solutions ensures stability is where forward-thinking packaging companies must focus.
As demand for plastic packaging increases, with the global pandemic highlighting how the ability to clean our groceries and be guaranteed that our masks, tests and vaccines are sterile, that responsibility of producing responsible plastic products takes on a new level. Consumers consistently chose to buy goods packaged in plastic, yet they also want to know that what they are buying is as responsible as possible.
So it is the responsibility of the plastic packaging industry to develop solutions that meet the demand of the consumer while also appreciating the impact their business has on the planet. Global plastic packaging producer RETAL has recently taken its ongoing investment in sustainability a step further by promoting an experienced chemical engineer to join its dedicated sustainability department.
In a strategic move, Elena Ralchenko’s new position is a welcome development, as her career has focused on new product development across the company’s portfolio of preforms, containers and closures since she joined RETAL in 2001 straight out of Dnipropetrovsk National University, having gained a Batchelor's degree in Polymers and Production, and a master's degree in Chemistry & Chemical Technology of high-molecular compounds.
But beyond impressive technical experience, Ralchenko joining the Sustainability Department is a personal achievement too, with her describing the role as ‘everything coming together at the right time’. She tells Sustainable Plastics, “Sustainability is very much a personal quest for me and I believe this role is everything coming together at the right time. We all see how the world is changing rapidly and every business strives for sustainability, customer requirements are increasingly focused on this. Now, with the possibility to combine knowledge from different fields of my experience we can continue to create progressive, innovative and sustainable solutions for our customers!”
This combined knowledge represents the pivotal point that NPD plays in sustainability; no plastic packaging company can expect to see a strong future unless product development has sustainability at its core. For that to happen, CSR must go beyond ‘trying to do the right thing’ and graduate to actually integrating sustainable solutions into the earliest stages of product development.
Ralchenko will be working with Sustainability Director Emmanuel Duffaut and the wider R&D team across RETAL to see how its products and its business can be as active as possible in its CSR actions. Duffaut explains how working together will also deliver considerable benefits in terms of coordinating the global reporting of GRIs for its annual Sustainability Report and promoting mitigation initiatives.
By closing the loop of new product development and sustainability by appointing Ralchenko, RETAL is harnessing her technical and polymer science knowledge, which balances perfectly with her passion for environmental and social progress. A regular speaker at plastic industry events, she is able to eloquently present her findings to active leaders, helping to promote the ever-increasing importance of sustainability in NPD across our industry.