When Excellence Matters RKW Group

WHEN EXCELLENCE MATTERS

The RKW Group is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of film and nonwoven solutions. With around 3,000 employees at 20 global locations, the company processes approximately 370 thousand tons of plastic materials each year.

In the world of polyolefin films and nonwovens, the RKW Group is a well-known presence. With over 60 years of film manufacturing experience, the firm has long been recognised for its high performance and quality standards. RKW has embraced sustainability as an integral part of its corporate social responsibility plan. With sustainable film and nonwoven solutions, the Group’s goal is to improve the daily life of consumers.

Comprehensive Sustainability Approach

Sustainability is a core focus of RKW. This is immediately obvious when reading RKW’s award-winning Sustainability Report, which details its extensive strategy. The company has already taken steps to realize many of its objectives, such as reducing energy consumption by investing in equipment with energy-saving potential. Some of the many other actions include purchasing energy from renewable sources, recovering heat for reuse, reducing water consumption, installing building insulation, or using materials based on renewable sources.

RKW is also a member of the Zero Pellet Loss Initiative, and so aims to reduce pellet loss across the entire process chain and recycle scrap wherever possible. Every RKW Site has its own recycling facilities, where scrap is reprocessed into high-quality regranulate. Reducing film thickness and weight, known as ‘lightweighting’, is also a challenge the company is concentrating on. It supports RKW’s sustainability strategy by increasing load sizes in trucks and thereby reducing the number of trucks on the road. A range of products have already benefited from RKW’s efforts in this area.

RKW Gronau Site

RKW’s main production Site for nonwovens is located in Gronau, Germany. It offers a wide range of nonwoven solutions that are customized for every potential need. These are manufactured with state-of-the-art technology ensuring high standards of purity combined with excellent mechanical properties. The nonwovens

are produced as a basis for specialty applications in the hygiene, health, agricultural, building and automotive fields.

There are many uses for the nonwoven raw materials RKW supplies. They serve as components for diapers and incontinence pads, such as closure systems, as well as liners for feminine hygiene pads. They can also be found at construction sites, where their superior characteristics make them ideal as sealing tape. In the medical field, RKW films can be found in the operating room as surgical drapes.

Advantages of Gronau’s Nonwovens

Ludger Kuhn, General Manager RKW Gronau and RKW Halberstadt, believes that customers especially appreciate the company’s flexibility. “With our production layouts, we are able to deliver smaller production lots and can offer special treatments such as flame-retardant or hydrophilic and extra-hydrophobic properties.” Gronau is also able to produce hydroentangled spunbond nonwoven, under the trademark RKW HyJet®. As it offers extremely soft, scratch-free material, it is ideal for applications in hygiene disposables and coverings for new vehicles being transported from the factory to the showroom.

In keeping with the company’s sustainability goals, the Gronau Site has implemented a way to reduce the consumption of water during production of RKW HyJet® nonwoven. In order to integrate fiber into the nonwoven material, a high-pressure method is needed which uses large quantities of water. However, by changing the water recirculation stream, demand has been significantly reduced. While positively impacting the environment through conservation approaches such as this, RKW also increases efficiency – a longterm benefit for customers. Innovative Protection for Crops

One fresh innovation at Gronau is its newly developed material for crop coverage. It artificially promotes earlier harvesting because it provides protection against negative weather influences and enables the formation of an internal micro-climate. In addition, compared to other material, it is stronger and better able to resist external mechanical forces such as animal encounters. All this reduces crop losses and maximizes output.

This new nonwoven crop cover from RKW was developed based on market needs and with an eye again to sustainability. The durability of the material means it can be used longer, consequently contributing to reducting plastic waste in the agriculture industry. With normal coverings, farmers are only able to use crop covers for one season. This material can potentially be used for up to two seasons – a 100 per cent increase in value.

Working Towards a Sustainable Future

RKW recognizes that environmental protection and social responsibility are connected inseparably. The Group is an active member of industry associations that focus on sustainability initiatives. These include Agriculture Plastic Environment (APE Europe), which aims to improve agri-waste recycling rates; or CEFLEX, a collaborative consortium of companies which is creating a circular economy roadmap. RKW plays a major and active role at EDANA, where the association’s mission is to create an ‘environment beneficial to innovation, sustainable and profitable growth of industry to best serve consumers.’

“When excellence matters.” That is RKW’s corporate slogan, which perfectly captures the essence of the company’s guiding principle to provide superior, sustainable products and services to its customers. n