In honour of Earth Day - 22 April - Samsonite has launched a new suitcase range made from secondary plastics materials under the brand name Magnum Eco.
Designed in Europe, the new suitcases are made from recycled materials produced by Quality Circular Polymers (QCP), the plastics recycling joint venture of Suez and LyondellBasell. QCP mechanically recycles polyolefins derived from household plastic waste such as plastic bottles and yogurt pots from the Netherlands and Belgium. This recyclate is the basis for LyondellBasell’s recently launched CirculenRecover family of materials.
The new suitcase collection comes in four different sizes; the large size suitcase incorporates the equivalent of 483 yoghurt cups and 14 plastic bottles, with an exterior shell made entirely from recycled plastics and interior fabric developed from 100% recycled PET bottles.
The Magnum Eco range builds on the success of the S’Cure ECO collection, launched by the company in 2019, and which also incorporated materials from QCP.
“We are continuously looking for new ways to reduce our environmental footprint across our operations. This includes innovating how our products are made so we play our part in repurposing plastic waste,” said Christine Riley Miller, Samsonite’s Global Director of Sustainability.
The QCP plant in Geleen (NL) is capable of converting consumer waste into 35,000 tons of recycled polypropylene (r-PP) and recycled high-density polyethylene (r-HDPE). In December 2020, QCP acquired a second recycling plant in Blandain (BE), capable of processing 22,000 tons of recycled polypropylene (r-PP), bringing QCP’s total plastic recycling capacity to approximately 55,000 tonnes per year.
QCP was jointly acquired by LyondellBasell and Suez in 2018. The company is committed to ending plastic waste in the environment. Both SUEZ and LyondellBasell are members of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, an organisation that brings together a diverse network of resources and expertise to create and scale innovative solutions around the world.