| Corporate, Products
SÜDPACK is one of the first film producers to have successfully completed the initial audit for ISCC PLUS certification (International Sustainability and Carbon Certification). All its German sites were certified in October and November 2021 and will gradually be followed by other locations. SÜDPACK has therefore established an important basis for the further development of its processes and products that will continue to drive the transformation from a linear to a circular economy.
ISCC EU is one of the leading standards for sustainable biofuels. ISCC PLUS has now expanded this globally recognized management system for mass balance certification to other key areas of the circular economy. The aim is to ensure the traceability of raw materials along the entire value chain in the food, animal feed and chemical sectors. ISCC PLUS is significantly more stringent than ISO certification, because every individual production site must be specifically certified.
At SÜDPACK, one of the uses for this certification is to provide evidence of its use of chemically recycled material. Because besides its own compounding and regranulation, the leading film producer also increasingly makes use of chemical recycling as a supplementary market alternative, as part of its sustainability offensive. The aim of this ambitious strategy is to further increase the proportion of recycled material in film production and convert hitherto non-recyclable industrial plastic waste into valuable resources.
By the end of November 2021, all of our German sites had been successfully certified, starting with the SÜDPACK Verpackungen sites in Ochsenhausen and Erolzheim and continuing with Ecoform Multifol in Erlenmoos and Schwendi, which has been certified as both a waste collection point and a production facility. The regranulate that is produced there, which is reused in extrusion, can therefore be designated as ISCC PLUS-certified material – just like any mechanical and chemical recyclates that SÜDPACK purchases from an ISCC PLUS-certified business.
Certification makes it possible to communicate transparent and verified information to stakeholders – while confirming that the ISCC sustainability requirements have been met and that the traceability of the entire supply chain is ensured. Its credibility is additionally substantiated by third-party certification.
“ISCC PLUS certification is extremely laborious and expensive, but is an important step in terms of preserving resources and the environment and therefore sustainability as a whole,” says Erik Bouts, CEO of SÜDPACK. As a manufacturer of products that were previously predominantly based on fossil-based raw materials, SÜDPACK feels particularly obliged to both support and intensively press ahead with this development.
