ELIF: ‘SUSTAINABILITY IS PART OF OUR DNA’
Elif, a global benchmark company for flexible packaging, explains how the philosophy of ‘Sustainable packaging for life’ encapsulates its belief that producers in this field must innovate to develop the best solutions for everyone around the world to live a healthier and more sustainable life. Victoria Hattersley spoke to Sustainability Director, Dr Betül Türel Erbay.
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hile many of us have moved into 2021 with a cautious sense of renewed hope following a testing year, the key environmental challenges we face are still looming large as ever. Each year, millions upon millions of tonnes of plastics are leaked into the environment, and according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation only around 10% of the total produced is recycled. There are no simple answers. We all know that the packaging industry – and the world into which it feeds – has a huge task to face when it comes to getting on a more sustainable, circular path. Sometimes this task looks insurmountable, because it is so multi-faceted. What does Elif believe are the major challenges to be faced by the flexible packaging sector in particular? “Packaging is part of the solution to future challenges. However, one of the biggest challenges for sustainability so far is the various processes of collecting and sorting the packaging waste and how to include them in the cycle in order to create a real circular economy,” begins Dr Betül Türel Erbay, Sustainability Director at Elif. “Successful examples exist, but these are too few and costs are higher. We need waste collection to be easier and cheaper in order to reach wider geographies – and finally, we could then talk about a real circular economy. “On the other hand, the market share of single-use plastics is still high. Therefore, Elif’s aim is also to convert these products into a fully recyclable structure. As a result, the company tries hard to continuously adapt to changing markets as customers and consumers require even more sustainable solutions. It consequently adapts to stay ahead of trends such as environmental concerns and as well digitalization and demographic shifts.
‘Smart business fosters sustainability’ Elif’s own response to these challenges and more can be summed up in the above-mentioned motto of ‘Sustainable packaging for life’. But what does this mean in real terms? After all, there’s no denying there are a lot | 26 | Packaging Europe
of sustainability ‘buzzwords’ flying around: how does this company hope to practically translate its own philosophy into helping the world transition to a circular economy in plastics? “Smart business fosters sustainability,” says Dr Erbay. “Therefore, we decided to expand our goal to produce continuously ‘Sustainable Packaging for life’, and to offer solutions that always target the ‘best’ for society, the environment, and humanity. Sustainability is part of our DNA. Our packaging reaches millions of people all around the world every day, helping to create a happier and healthier life and, consequently, our business really is ‘Packaging for life’.” For Elif, this means the confluence of many factors, from increased use of mono-materials to biobased plastics, chemical recycling and – perhaps most importantly – greater cross-industry collaboration. Elif works closely with customers to reach their sustainability goals by using more recycled content, bio-based materials, bio-degradable green PE, and fully recyclable HyPEr/PE laminate structures. Its concrete goal for consumer goods products in Europe, to be achieved by 2025, is to develop packaging that is 100% recyclable, reusable or compostable. Polyolefin-based flexible packaging materials constitute 93% of its product portfolio, which it tells us is already 100% recyclable. Some of the brands and solutions within Elif’s sustainable product offering for the personal care, food & beverage, pet care and home care sectors include ElifGreen, ElifHybr, ElifNatty and ElifProLite, each addressing a particular challenge or environmental goal. Consequently, Elif recently launched its Elif Sustainable Eco Solutions range. As we go on, we will look more closely at some of these and how they serve as an illustration of the company’s approach in action.
The role of biomaterials As we have already touched upon, Elif believes strongly in the increased use of bio-based and biodegradable materials as one of the routes to achieving our collective sustainability goals. This can be a challenging subject: many in the industry are still wary of incorporating bioplastics,
