31 May 2024

Pioneering Sustainable Innovation in Retail Packaging – A Reflection on TechRound Sustainability60

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by Mike Jones, Head of Innovation at Mainetti

Earlier this year, TechRound announced their Sustainability60 2024 list to celebrate the most innovative sustainability companies throughout the UK and Europe. The list recognizes businesses that are creating and utilizing technology to solve global climate issues.

Mainetti secured spot number 29, illustrating our commitment to sustainability and highlighting our prominent standing among the leading sustainable companies in the field. Founded in 2016, TechRound has emerged as the UK’s fastest-growing tech news startup, and so this is an important accolade. Such industry recognition empowers us to build-on efforts as leaders in sustainable innovation for the retail packaging industry and accelerate our collaboration with partners and customers to meet the climate crisis head-on.

Revolutionizing Retail Packaging and Preserving the Environment

Since 1961, Mainetti has been a trusted partner to the world’s leading retail and apparel brands, delivering innovative and sustainable solutions across six continents. With 6,000 employees in 90 locations worldwide, we are committed to providing top-quality solutions and services to our global network of customers.

Mainetti not only designs a range of packaging solutions but also develops innovative reuse and recycling processes that have revolutionized the retail industry, such as Hangerloop and Polyloop.

Launched in 2021, Polyloop represents an innovative global initiative, as the world’s first global initiative, offering retailers the ability to procure transparent LDPE film crafted from materials comprising 30 to 100 percent recycled content. Following the processes of processing, collecting, and meticulously cleaning post-consumer film, Polyloop then distributes the material to Mainetti’s several manufacturing facilities spanning the UK, Italy, Türkiye, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, and China.

Mainetti’s Full Circle Initiative for Net Zero Emissions

Not only does Mainetti produce innovative packaging solutions and recycling processes, but we also work to preserve local and global environments. Indeed, with our Full Circle Initiative, we are committed to achieving net zero emissions in line with global sustainability targets. In 2023, we opened our second solar installation at Mainetti SPA, the ancestral home of our company in Italy. Powered 100% by renewable energy, it is estimated that our factory in Castelgomberto will reduce 65,000kg CO2e per year. Through projects such as this, Mainetti is increasingly able to produce more and more products in facilities powered by renewable energy and we remain actively committed to reducing our carbon footprint across all aspects of our operations.

Additionally, earlier this year, we announced the expansion of our operations in Bangladesh, reinforcing our sustainable flexible packaging business and amplifying Mainetti’s Polyloop recycling initiative. At the new factory, we are working towards the implementation of solar panels, with a target of generating 650KW of clean energy. This expansion is in line with Mainetti’s overarching strategy to decarbonize its manufacturing operations and champion the principles of the circular economy. Having joined the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Global Network in 2021, we prioritize the production of packaging, branding, and supply chain solutions. Aligned with the principles of a circular economy, we strive to utilize up to 100% recycled content plastic and prolong the presence of plastic within the supply chain.

Furthermore, through Mainetti’s Global Forest initiative, we have been able to plant over 50,000 trees through backyard planting and verified reforestation efforts. With this campaign alongside our partners at Centurybox Mainetti, we aim to address the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Under this initiative, we have also carried out work with the Belgian non-profit organization, Graine de Vie, to alleviate poverty and hunger in local communities. By planting trees in Graine de Vie’s nursery in Madagascar, we have been able to work toward restoring ecosystems, support local economies by providing access to essential cash crops, and counter the devastating effects of climate change.

Embracing the powerful potential of businesses as agents of positive change, we remain committed to leverage our platform. Our goal is not only to revolutionize the retail industry and lead the charge towards a more sustainable future, but also to actively give back to the community and safeguard the planet’s ecosystems. We hope that TechRound’s recognition of the efforts of sustainable companies will serve as a catalyst, inspiring others to do the same.