EPL (Essel Propack Ltd), an Indian Multi-national company in the business of manufacturing laminated plastic tubes, today announced Project “Liberty”, a major step forward in its commitment to improve sustainability
Project Liberty is a first-of-its-kind and path breaking attempt to recycle multilayer laminates which consists aluminium in the structure, by separating aluminium and polymer into two distinct and reusable streams without the use of chemicals or heat.
In this effort EPL has collaborated with multiple major technical partners across the globe and codeveloped a solid-state environmental friendly process to liberate aluminium from the laminate/tubes.
EPLuses two basic structures to make laminated tubes:
- Plastic Barrier Laminate (PBL) tubes –made of all plastic layers and are easily recyclable
- Aluminium Barrier Laminate (ABL) tubes –made with combination of polymers and has aluminium foil as the barrier layer.
ABL poses challenges in recycling and the company has been working relentlessly over 4 years on developing a solution to separate the polymer and aluminium. With Project ‘Liberty’ the polymer fraction can be recovered from ABL tubes and the same can be recycled to various packaging applications. The recovered aluminium metal also shall be reused, making every single tube recyclable.
Speaking on the occasion of the launch, Ashok Goel, CMD, EPL. said,
“The main objective of launching this project is to establish a traceable and sustainable recycling process. Project ‘Liberty’, will not only fulfil our vision of ‘Every single tube made by Essel is recyclable’, but will also help all partners across the value chain in achieving their sustainability goals commitments to their stake holders.”
The Project has been kicked off and will be implemented in 2 Phases. It shall begin with India where
In Phase-I: The Company will recycle its own tubes and laminate scrap, for which it will equip its units accordingly by Q3 FY 19.
In Phase II: EPL will offer the recycling facilities to its Customers & partner with Brand owners to regulate the Post Consumer tubes and offer for recycling.
In subsequent phases, we shall roll out such facilities globally, in a phased manner. As a responsible company, EPL has always strived hard towards achieving better sustainability. Some of the other notable initiatives are:
a) Etain® – Tubes made with up to 25% Post-Consumer recycled resin content, promoting the use of PCR resins, reducing the demand for virgin raw materials.
b) Green Maple LeafTM PE based recyclable barrier tubes with HDPE caps that can be 100% recycled in to C2 HDPE recycle stream. This laminate is one of its kinds globally and has recently been awarded under the “sustainability” category by the American Tube Council.
c) Super TitaniumTM – Tubes designed with better stiffness to enable reduction in web thickness without compromising on other functional requirement enabling source reduction.