Page 14 - Plastics News September 2020

Nestlé Philippines and CEMEX partner to ePac Flexible Packaging and RPT to address
divert plastic waste in Cebu
estlé Philippines and building materials provider
NCEMEX Holdings Philippines have entered a
partnership agreement to divert plastic waste in Cebu
province. The agreement is part of Nestlé Philippines
initiative under a long-term plastic waste collection
and recovery programme. It was signed by Nestlé
Philippines chairman and CEO Kais Marzouki and CEMEX
Holdings Philippines president and CEO Ignacio Mijares
Elizondo. Marzouki said: “We welcome this new
agreement and we thank CEMEX Holdings Philippines
for making it possible for us to further intensify our
actions to address plastic waste. “We are happy to
extend this initiative beyond the National Capital
Region to Cebu in our efforts to reach various areas of
the country.”As part of this partnership, Nestlé
Philippines, along with its programme partners and
authorised transportation provider, will collect post-
consumer soft plastics. These pre-process plastics will
be transported to the CEMEX Holdings Philippines'
subsidiary APO Cement Corporation's plant in Tinaan,
Naga City in Cebu to co-process the post-consumer soft
plastics. Elizondo said: “We're very excited to
jumpstart our partnership with Nestlé, the largest food
and beverage conglomerate in the world. We recognise
and gladly support Nestlé's commitment to tackling
plastic waste. “CEMEX and Nestlé have a shared vision
to make a significant difference and contribute to the
economic, social and environmental growth of the
Philippines. In April 2018, Nestlé commits to make
100% of its packaging recyclable or reusable by 2025.
Last month, Nestlé Waters North America (NWNA)
expanded its sustainable packaging to three more US
domestic still water brands including Ozarka Brand,
Deer Park Brand and Zephyrhills Brand.
September 2020 14
plastic waste pollution
ull-service digitally-based ePac Flexible Packaging
Fand engineered product solutions provider
RePurpose Technologies (RPT) have partnered to
address plastic waste pollution. As part of this
partnership, ePac and RPT will develop replicable
recycling facilities to solve the problem of plastics
ending up at landfills. Beginning from next year, the
parties will create the facilities in a bid to achieve a
circular solution focused on the community. The
community-based model will provide supply chain
transparency to all participants. ePac runs 14
community-based flexible packaging facilities in the
US with mainly small and medium-sized companies as
customers. According to the company, every package
can be serialised with a unique code with the help of
digital printing. This enables tracking packages from
production to reuse. Data can be collected leveraging
IoT/Blockchain technology to provide tracking
information to brands and retailers. ePac CEO Jack
Knott said: “The reason we started ePac was to play a
small part in rebuilding our communities; our
relationship with RPT will allow us to continue in that
direction with a reliable, sustainable, and transparent
solution.” RPT has developed proprietary
formulations and patented technology to produce
“high demand products from co-mingled plastics”.
Designed to reduce handling and carbon footprint, the
platform enables direct consumer engagement and
traceability. RePurpose Technologies CEO. Claudine
Osipow said: “I'm excited to be a part of the team and
the collaboration with ePac that allows everyone to
take action and be part of the solution.” In June this
year, ePac Flexible Packaging announced plans to open
a new facility near Sacramento, serving the Northern
California area.
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