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Presse-Paket
Bilder und Texte

ALPLA backing biode­gra­dable materials

Acqui­si­tion of a signi­fi­cant mino­rity stake in a Slovak com­pany spe­cia­lised in the manu­fac­tu­ring and rese­arch of bio-based and biode­gra­dable plastics.

Hard, 22 July 2021 – With its acqui­si­tion of a signi­fi­cant mino­rity stake in the Slovak com­pany Panara a.s., the global pack­a­ging spe­cia­list, the ALPLA Group, is step­ping up its acti­vi­ties in the rese­arch field of alter­na­tive, sus­tainable raw mate­rials for pack­a­ging. Panara is focu­sing on the deve­lo­p­ment of fully bio-based and biode­gra­dable plastics.

ALPLA is pur­suing a holi­stic approach that requires that all of its pro­duct areas and future pack­a­ging solu­tions are being deve­loped with a func­tio­ning cir­cular eco­nomy in mind. Hence sel­ec­ting mate­rials that are sui­table for bio-based and biode­gra­dable pack­a­ging. In pur­suit of its mis­sion, ALPLA is inves­ting in the Panara a.s. and is acqui­ring a signi­fi­cant mino­rity share in this Slovak com­pany spe­cia­lised in the deve­lo­p­ment of bioplastics.

ALPLA Chairman Gün­ther Lehner, who is respon­sible for sus­taina­bi­lity, cir­cular eco­nomy, tech­no­logy deve­lo­p­ment and inno­va­tion: ‘Panara has a lot of expe­ri­ence in the area of bio-based pla­s­tics. In acqui­ring a stake in the com­pany and part­ne­ring with Panara, we want to leverage this exper­tise and make the transfer of know­ledge pos­sible for our appli­ca­tions and customers.’

Fully Bio-based and com­post­able plastic
Panara has been con­duc­ting rese­arch in the area of bio­po­ly­mers since 2006. This involves its part­ne­ring with the Slovak Uni­ver­sity of Tech­no­logy in Bra­tis­lava and the Centre for Applied Rese­arch of Envi­ron­men­tally Fri­endly Poly­meric Mate­rials (CEPOMA) in Nitra. Just recently, the com­pany intro­duced a bio­pla­stic to the market under the brand name Nono­ilen which is made enti­rely using rene­wable resources, is recy­clable and can be com­ple­tely indus­tri­ally com­posted at the end of its life cycle. The mate­rial is also temperature-resistant and stable. Chris­tian Zmölnig, Director of Cor­po­rate Rese­arch and Inno­va­tion at ALPLA, sees the col­la­bo­ra­tion as ano­ther step in the direc­tion of the pack­a­ging of the future: ‘As a tech­no­logy leader in the area of pack­a­ging mate­rials, we engage in ongoing work with part­ners to develop new raw mate­rials that will mini­mise carbon dioxide emis­sions as well as resource consumption.’

Advan­cing the cir­cular economy
Acqui­ring a stake in Panara is in line with ALPLA’s stra­tegic focus of increased invest­ment in the cir­cular eco­nomy. The four Rs Replace, Reduce, Re-use and Recycle are cru­cial in order to advance forward-looking acti­vi­ties and to iden­tify areas of action.

The “Replace rese­arch field” com­prises rese­arch into and the use of alter­na­tive, bio-based and recy­clable materials.

ALPLA is already involved in the deve­lo­p­ment of paper-based bot­tles with the com­pany Paboco, for example, and has unveiled a home-compostable coffee cap­sule to the public.

Reduce focuses on an ongoing reduc­tion in mate­rial con­sump­tion, Re-use is all about opti­mi­sing the pro­per­ties of pla­stic bot­tles for reuse sys­tems and Recycle addresses the over­ar­ching objec­tive of kee­ping as much pla­stic as pos­sible in the recy­cling cycle.

Enquiry infor­ma­tion for editorial
ALPLA, Gernot Schweig­kofler (Senior Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Manager), tel.: +43 (0)5574 602 1046, email: gernot.schweigkofler@alpla.com
Pzwei. Pres­se­ar­beit, Joshua Köb, tel.: +43 (0)5574 44715 22, email: joshua.koeb@pzwei.at