First issue of Make Up Technology of CEC Editor, article by Elena Colangelo marketing manager at MC&Co.

The concept of eco-sustainability for packaging manufacturers is often the main challenge of most innovation and research projects. Only in Italy, the production of empty packaging exceeded 16.7 million tons in 2019, but the most worrying data is emerged from recent research led by The Scientific Agency of the Australian Government (Csiro), according to which on 51 samples of ocean floor’s sections, once the weight of water is excluded, each gram of sediment contains on average 1.26 microplastic fragments. Stopping the amount of plastic that is flowing into waterways and oceans around the world has become a huge international challenge.

The use of biodegradable materials as plastic substitutes seems the most acclaimed solution. However, it often represents the right answer only from an environmental sustainability point of view, ignoring the founding pillars of social sustainability which in the last years has been gaining more and more value. In fact, to produce from organic sources, it is necessary cultivation lands that are generally destined to food markets, stealing precious space from a sector of vital importance.

Therefore, the most ethically correct (and globally more sustainable) solution is the way of plastic recycling. Based on this scheme, MC&Co has chosen to start an investment plan for the revamping of production machines by converting them into multi-layer technology. These new production plants allow us to meet sustainability requirements in the HDPE domain by creating a pack consisting of 3 overlapping plastic layers where the inner and outer surfaces are made of very thin virgin plastic, while the thicker layer they enclose is the recycled material.

Based on the final uses of the pack, the percentage of recycled material can range from 50 up to 75%. We believe that multi-layer production offers the possibility of creating an environmentally friendly product, while preserving the aesthetic and functional characteristics required by the cosmetic industry market to achieve a high-performance final product.

In addition to this proposal, MC&Co also offers the option of manufacturing products with post-consumer recycled plastic polymers (R-PET): a further sustainable solution that gives a second (or even third) life to plastic so as to feed the virtuous cycle in the world of packaging.

From a purely technological point of view, MC&Co started a plan to improve the level of education and attention required to our staff for the correct use and recover the raw materials and the production wastes. These waste materials are turned into specific artifacts or correctly reinserted into an external recovery process.

However, it is essential not to forget the impulse of global economic development generated from plastic invention; let’s think about the last year and the importance of having a hand sanitizer in your pocket that, for its characteristics, finds a plastic container as an ideal solution.

Conclusion

Plastics will probably still play a strategic role in the future,it will be our task to manage them with greater awareness and responsibility starting from the right approach the waste management.