Plastic closures play a vital part in many supply chains particularly in the manufacturing and distribution of food, beverage, pharmaceutical and household cleaning products, to name a few. Plastic closure systems have a lower carbon footprint than many alternative materials and provide many benefits to consumers such as
- Convenience through reseal-ability
- Safety through tamper evidence and child resistance
- Functionality through bespoke designs i.e. sieves, pouring spouts etc.
Plastic closures are a part of our everyday life and are found in every household and food pantry around the globe. Through their ubiquity, not only do they provide many benefits but also present us with challenges around waste, recycling, lightweighting etc...
Cormack as a supplier continuously faces a challenge in regards to our food and pharma industry customers and compliance requirements. Generally food-contact-use plastic closures have not been made from recycled plastics. In response to this Cormack has taken a holistic view and taken the following steps in reducing its carbon footprints:
Electricity Usage:
Cormack has invested and installed LED lightings across its factories and warehouses. This initiative has reduced our CO2 emissions by 380,000 kg per year.
Cormack has purchased new power-efficient moulding machines, these machines require 10% less energy vs older technology.
New product development:
Cormack works with a wide variety of customers in developing new closures. When purchasing new moulds we ensure that part of the design brief is the inclusion of hot runner systems which benefit in reducing plastic waste during the manufacturing process.
Cormack is also actively collaborating with resin suppliers on the use of resins made from renewable feedstocks such as used old cooking oil. To date Cormack has conducted a number of trials on closures using a blend of virgin and recycled material and will be presented to critical customers for validation. This initiative, once introduced, will help to reduce our carbon footprint even further.
Recycling the current plastic waste:
When Cormack generate closures using cold runner technology, where possible the runners are reground and reused as part of a closed loop process. This helps in reducing the waste and does not affect the quality of the product.