ALPLA Group

Focus on recy­cling: ALPLA sus­taina­bi­lity report 2021–2022

Posi­tive deve­lo­p­ment con­ti­nues – 327,520 tonnes of recy­cled mate­rial already in 2022

Hard, 13 December 2023 – The inter­na­tional ALPLA Group is pre­sen­ting its fifth sus­taina­bi­lity report under the motto ‘What we do mat­ters’. In it, the pack­a­ging and recy­cling spe­cia­list ana­lyses the finan­cial years 2021 and 2022 and focuses on the three pil­lars of ‘People’, ‘Planet’ and ‘Pro­fi­ta­bi­lity’. ALPLA is on track in spite of growth and global expan­sion thanks to energy effi­ci­ency mea­sures and invest­ments in the cir­cular eco­nomy. The pro­por­tion of recy­cled mate­rial was increased from 16 per cent to 18 per cent bet­ween 2021 and 2022 and is expected to reach at least 25 per cent by 2025.

With its fifth sus­taina­bi­lity report, the ALPLA Group offers insights into the envi­ron­mental, social and eco­nomic deve­lo­p­ments of the finan­cial years 2021 and 2022. The report focuses on business-relevant issues such as cli­mate pro­tec­tion, resource effi­ci­ency, equal oppor­tu­nity, and legal and regu­la­tory changes. Data, charts and examples docu­ment the pro­gress made and show where there is poten­tial. ‘Every day, we cham­pion solu­tions that pro­mote safe, affordable and sus­tainable life around the world. With more than three bil­lion people coming into contact with our pro­ducts every day, we are assuming the great respon­si­bi­lity that comes with our mis­sion,’ empha­sises ALPLA CEO Philipp Lehner.

Con­stant energy con­sump­tion despite growth
High-quality data forms the basis for tar­geted cli­mate pro­tec­tion mea­sures. ALPLA has deve­loped a detailed cal­cu­la­tion of the carbon foot­print for all the regions, plants and divi­sions. The carbon foot­print[1] is to be fur­ther reduced by making increased use of rene­wable energy and with initia­tives to pro­mote the cir­cular eco­nomy. These include light­weight pack­a­ging, in-house pro­duc­tion directly at the customer’s pre­mises, invest­ments in state-of-the-art recy­cling plants and inno­va­tive pro­jects with pla­stic alternatives.

Energy con­sump­tion remained con­stant in 2021 and 2022 despite the gro­wing mate­rial needs. The share of rene­wable energy was increased by one per­cen­tage point from 2021 to 2022 to the cur­rent level of 22 per cent. Num­e­rous plants in Aus­tria, Ger­many, Spain, Por­tugal, Poland, Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama are already run enti­rely on rene­wable energy and more sites are sche­duled to follow in the coming years.

Gro­wing pro­por­tion of recy­cled materials
In line with the Ellen Mac­Ar­thur Foundation’s New Pla­s­tics Eco­nomy Global Com­mit­ment, ALPLA intends to be using at least 25 per cent recy­cled mate­rials in its pack­a­ging by 2025. In 2021, 282,050 tonnes of recy­cled mate­rial were used, equa­ting to around 16 per cent of the mate­rial needs. By 2022, this had already gone up to 327,520 tonnes or 18 per cent of the total needs. Incre­asingly recy­cling used pla­s­tics is an important lever for redu­cing green­house gases and will be fur­ther pro­moted through invest­ments in recycling.

People and values
ALPLA employs around 23,300 people world­wide. The family busi­ness ope­rates its own child­care faci­li­ties, trains skilled workers itself at ‘Future Cor­ners’ around the world and offers num­e­rous in-house trai­ning oppor­tu­ni­ties and e‑learning courses. Since 2020, two addi­tional child­care faci­li­ties have been added in India, as have dual trai­ning pro­grammes in India, Poland and South Africa.

Regional focus: Mexico, Cen­tral Ame­rica and the Caribbean
As in pre­vious sus­taina­bi­lity reports, an ALPLA region is again pre­sented in detail in this reporting period. This time it is Mexico, Cen­tral Ame­rica and the Carib­bean (MXCA-CARI), which employs over 3,000 people at 36 sites. Sus­taina­bi­lity initia­tives in the region include the start of con­s­truc­tion of the state-of-the-art PLANETA recy­cling plant, a joint ven­ture bet­ween ALPLA and Coca-Cola FEMSA in 2022. In addi­tion, a regional carbon foot­print has been deve­loped, local green spaces have been refo­rested and initiatives for the collection of used plastics have been established.

More infor­ma­tion: www.sustainability-report21-22.alpla.com

[1] 2022: Gross GHG emis­sions (tCO2e): Scope 1: 27,485; Scope 2, market-based: 673,412; Scope 3: 4,578,455

 

About the ALPLA Group
ALPLA is one of the world’s leading companies in the manufacture and recycling of plastic packaging. Around 23,300 employees worldwide produce custom-made packaging systems, bottles, caps and moulded parts at 190 sites across 46 countries. The high-quality packaging is used in a wide range of areas, including for food and drinks, cosmetics and care products, household cleaning products, detergents and cleaning agents, pharmaceutical products, engine oils and lubricants.

ALPLA operates recycling plants for PET and HDPE in Austria, Germany, Poland, Mexico, Italy, Spain, Romania and Thailand. Other projects are being realised elsewhere around the world.

www.alpla.com

 

Infor­ma­tion for editorial
ALPLA, Lukas Österle (Senior Sus­taina­bi­lity Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Manager), +43 (0)5574 6021 132, lukas.oesterle@alpla.com
Pzwei. Pres­se­ar­beit, Joshua Köb, +43 (0)5574 4471 522, joshua.koeb@pzwei.at