November 21st 2019
Finnish flexible packaging producer Amerplast and insulation material producer Ekovilla are launching an ecological insulation wool packaging to the market. These ESSI CircWrap packaging are made from recycled material, thus significantly decreasing the carbon footprint of the final product and communicating the companies’ values as promoters of recycling and circular economy.
The new circular economy packaging produced by Amerplast, is made from over 90% of recycled material, from which 50% originates from consumer plastic packaging that are separately collected from Finnish households. This packaging is an answer to Ekovilla’s needs to pack their environmentally friendly products in an environmentally friendly packaging. This increases the use of recycled materials, decreasing our society’s dependency on fossil based raw materials and the carbon footprint of the packaging.
Recyclability and the use of recycled raw materials in plastic packaging will increase in the building and construction industry, as the environmental awareness among consumers and companies is increasing. The transition towards circular economy in the building and construction industry is accelerating also due to EU’s circular economy strategy, targets and regulations. According to EU, all plastic packaging should be designed reusable or recyclable by 2030. In addition, the Commission has a target of 10 million tons of recycled plastic to be used in plastic products by 2025.
“The sustainability in plastic packaging is greatly based on the raw materials and recyclability. Studies show, that the use of recycled materials in packaging significantly reduces their carbon footprint, and the construction packaging are an excellent use target for recycled materials”, says Ari-Pekka Pietilä, Chief Marketing Officer, Amerplast. “The cooperation with Ekovilla has been very meaningful for us and it is a great privilege to work with a company sharing our values and wants to develop the Finnish circular economy. It is crucially important for the environment and Finnish work, that there are companies utilizing the recycled material that is locally sorted, collected and processed into packaging”, Pietilä points out.
”At Ekovilla, we have calculated the emissions of our production and raw materials – investing and developing procurement has now led to Ekovilla’s carbon-neutral insulation products. In other words, the production of the insulation does not produce more carbon dioxide than the wood-based raw material binds to it, and we can even sell the carbon tied to our products as carbon credits. Finnish raw materials, energy efficient production, and partners such as Amerplast, based on recycled materials, have enabled us to make this development into a carbon sink. It is especially wonderful to recycle our own plastic wrapping through the Amerplast process into new Ekovilla product packaging – and it’s hard to come up with a better example of a circular economy than this,” says Lauri Törrö, Chief Operating Officer, Ekovilla.
Additional information:
Amerplast:
Ari-Pekka Pietilä
Chief Marketing Officer
ari-pekka.pietila@amerplast.com
tel. +358 (0)50 385 6587
Ekovilla:
Lauri Törrö
Ekovilla, operatiivinen johtaja
lauri.torro@ekovilla.com
tel. +358 (0)400 255 610
About Ekovilla
Ekovilla, established in 1979 is an SME operating in Kouvola, Finland. The company also has production facilities in Kiiminki and Ylöstaro, Finland. It is specialized in the manufacturing of wood-based insulation materials with one of the factories also producing an organic fiber used for quality asphalt. Ekovilla’s insulation products have become the most favored products among Finnish house builders and renovators. The company is the market leader in organic insulation materials in Finland. www.ekovilla.com