02 six months of news and views on … and views on logoplaste’s world 02oct08 world editorial...

LOGOPLASTE

WORLDSIX MONTHS OF

NEWS AND VIEWS ON

LOGOPLASTE’S WORLD

02OCT08

WORLD

EDITORIAL COMMITEECarlos Cebrian, Carlos RegoDuarte Martins, Herve SimonnetJoe Mccaughey, José Brito PiresLisa Hillburn, Solange Urbano

EDITORIAL AND DESIGNImagefactory.pt

INDEXEDITORIAL

Mission Accomplished 3

MOMENTS FROM HISTORY

From Revolution to Evolution 4

OUR WORLD

UK Trainees and INOV Contacto 9

LOGOPLASTE moves in with NESTLE Group 12 When a Factory is the whole world 15

A STEP AHEAD

Artificial Visioning aiming at zero defects 17

New Center says Logoplaste “is in America to stay” 19 PARTNER’S VOICE

Logoplaste “Very prepared in all areas of expertise” 21

INDUSTRY NEWS

Re-pet project in UK 23

WORLD

EDITORIAL WORLD

3

Mission Accomplished

Here at Logoplaste we try to do our best for our customers and for our employees, and through a combination of hard work, inspiration and sometimes just plain luck we’ve managed to grow bigger and to expand around the world. This company is truly a multinational, with operations in 16 countries and more to come, though we’ve worked hard to keep the mindset of a smaller nimbler business to preserve our core values and please our customers as well as coming up with more innovative products and offering employees more and better opportunities.

As part of that effort, we’re proud to announce the opening of our first research centre outside Portugal. It is scheduled to open in January 2009 in Cincinnati, Ohio and you can read all about it in this issue of Logoworld. The center is a demonstration of our commitment to be as close to our customers as possible and to continue to grow in the U.S., the biggest market for consumer products in the world.

Who could have guessed way back in 1990, when we first decided to enter markets outside Portugal that Logoplaste would grow into the international company it is today? Our first foray abroad, in Spain, got off to a rocky start and certainly wasn’t a good omen, though now operations there are running as well as anywhere. In any case, our next move was into Brazil and there we got it right from the beginning.

Since then we haven’t stopped looking for new markets and just in the past year, we’ve started business operations in several new countries, including Russia and Mexico, and all that expansion means that some of our newer colleagues need to travel more and more to get to know the company and the rest of you, as Allan Benson and Gabriel Leal found out during a whirlwind tour of Europe earlier this year that you can also read about in this issue.

Our rapid growth, and the wide diversity of cultures in the countries where we work, encouraged us to start this magazine as a way to help everyone get to know each other better. Logoworld is more than an internal publication, “It’s a way to help new people get to know their workplace better, to spread ideas and to spur innovations that sometimes wouldn’t leave the offices of those directly involved.” It is also a voice for Logoplaste’s people to talk about their Logoplaste world and get to know each other better. It is, and probably will always be, a work in progress. However encouraging these first steps and the feedback we’ve had both from within and outside the company it could be that this section’s title isn’t really correct, as this is a mission that will never be fully accomplished.

MOMENTSFROM HISTORY

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FROM REVOLUTIONTO EVOLUTION

From revolution to evolution

MOMENTSFROM HISTORY

5


April 25, 1974 was the day that everything changed for

Logoplaste’s founder, Marcel de Botton, and for millions of other

Portuguese people. It had started like any other day for the

man that would later create Logoplaste, but within a few hours

of arriving at his job at a plastics factory near Amadora, in the

outskirts of Lisbon, the revolution organized that day by a group

of military officers put an end to 48 years of dictatorship in the

country and began the chain of events that ultimately led to the

development of a unique production system.

“I was the Senior Executive of a Plastics Factory and on the

25th of April I came in at 7:30, as usual. All was running without

problem, even though I had heard on the car radio that there was

a revolution. When I got to the factory, everything was running as

usual. At 12.00, suddenly the factory stopped,” he recounted.

The so-called Carnation Revolution against the country’s right-

wing authoritarian government and the fact that the clandestine

communist party was for decades the only organized opposition

to the regime, had almost instantaneously led to a reaction

against capitalism, particularly against the owners of the means

of production in Portugal. Under the dictatorships of Marcelo

Caetano, and before him, Antonio Salazar, trade unions weren’t

allowed outside the strict control of the state, so the workers

had neither the habit nor the means to claim their rights. That

situation changed with the revolution, which coupled with the

communist party’s strength and close connection to the unions

led to workers rising against their bosses within hours of the

revolt.

At noon “everyone stopped at the factory. There was a balcony

over the factory floor, and three young people who were hired

four months before began to speak about the poor situation

of all the workers. They were asking for a 30% increase in

salary. As the bosses weren’t used to facing strikes, we tried to

convince them that this was only possible in agreement with our

competitors, that one factory alone couldn’t do it,” Marcel de

Botton said.

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We tried to convince them, but we didn’t succeed.

Perhaps, with some innocence, we accepted their

conditions. After that, it was becoming usual in

Portugal in those days, to establish a commission

of workers that took power and management of the

company.”

The revolution was followed by a period of political,

economic and social turmoil that lasted for almost two

years. Thousands were forced to immigrate for fear

of imprisonment or violence against their families,

particularly medium and large business owners,

that more radical revolutionaries saw as “fascist

supporters” and “worker’s oppressors”, which even led

to the arrest of some of the country’s main business

people accused of being “counter-revolutionary”.

The government nationalized the country’s biggest

banks and industrial companies without financial

compensation for its owners, and those who weren’t

jailed, left the country, fearing for their safety,

sometimes with little more than a bag of clothes and

personal belongings in their hand. Brazil was one of

the main destinations for business people, and even

nowadays it isn’t uncommon to find a large company’s

leader or owner that spent some time living in Rio de

Janeiro while they hoped things in Portugal cooled

down.

While in the mostly agricultural South agrarian

workers were taking over the land, in the cities

workers’ commissions essentially took over most

of Portugal’s biggest factories and companies.

Their ideas for running the factories weren’t always

the most sensible, and the combination of lack of

managerial skills with outright naiveté certainly didn’t

result in profitability for companies under “people’s”

management.

MOMENTSFROM HISTORY

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“We had a machine making 60 plastic crates per

hour, and they wanted to cut production in half

because anything over 30 crates was going to be

profit for the capitalists,” said Marcel de Botton

giving a perfect example of the kind of decisions the

worker’s committees made while running plants.

The commissions also tried to appropriate

companies’ cash whenever it was available. At

Marcel de Botton’s plant, they looked at the books

and saw that the company had reserves, in fact, a

figure representing an accounting entry and not

exactly hard cash in the bank. They demanded that

the money be distributed among the workers, so

Marcel de Botton and his partners explained the

difference between the figure in the books and

money in the bank, and asked them to bring an

accountant they trusted to confirm that they were

indeed speaking the truth. The workers got an

accountant through their local union who of course

confirmed that the managers were speaking the

truth, and that money in the books didn’t always

mean cash in the bank. The reaction was immediate

“they accused me of bribing the accountant to

manipulate things for us”, Marcel de Botton recalls,

“and this was their own accountant, that I believe

was even a member of the communist party, the

best revolutionary credential anyone could have in

those days”.

After that, Marcel de Botton, who was the main

investor in the plant, realized that the situation just

wasn’t going to work out, and that he was going

to lose everything if he stuck with that company.

He made the difficult decision to abandon his job,

factory and his investment and start all over again,

although the factory did keep operating. The path

he chose then would lead his new company to a

success beyond all expectations.

Because of the events around the revolution, he

decided that his new business would avoid at all

costs complications such as those he had with

workers’ commissions, and that meant reducing

the number of employees per plant and the

plants themselves “to avoid having a workers’

commission, the company had to have fewer than

20 workers, and that was the motivation for me

for creating small companies” Marcel de Botton

explained.

MOMENTSFROM HISTORY

7


“We had a machine making 60 plastic crates per hour, and they wanted to cut production in half because anything over 30 crates was going to be profit for the capitalists,” said Marcel de Botton

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This led to “hole in the wall” a business model that

not only reduced risk but also greatly increased

efficiency, by installing bottle producing units just

across the wall from the very factories they serve,

reducing or eliminating altogether the logistical

issues of delivering finished goods to clients.

The concepts of just-in-time delivery and close

integration of supply chains weren’t exactly

common in the 1970s, at least outside leading

Japanese and American factories, but its use in

the Portuguese plastics industry was clearly an

innovation, one that proved an almost immediate

success.

“I can tell you it was during my shower that I

suddenly yelled out “eureka”, it was a consequence

of the situation and with that process we could avoid

the cost of stock, transportation and be closer to the

user. We started with two small projects, one was

Nestlé.”

The concept’s popularity with Marcel de Botton’s

initial customers gave him the confidence to try to

sell it to other companies. He also wanted to spread

the use of plastic packaging for drinking water,

and he approached the biggest water company in

Portugal with his idea.

I contacted Luso, the leading mineral water brand in

Portugal, and convinced them to do their bottles in

plastic, because it would save weight in comparison

to glass. The manager of the water filling plant told

me, ‘well we could put a machine in some corner of

this plant, and we can try.’ We tried, and we made

the bottles of PVC for several of years, and today we

are perhaps the main supplier of water bottles in

Portugal.”

The experiment with Luso was a success, and

Logoplaste eventually gained other clients that

produced bottled water in Portugal. Growth

continued until there was little room for more

expansion within Portugal. That was when the

decision was made to move into other countries,

inspired by Marcel de Botton’s son, Filipe.

“At that time, I thought we had covered all the

capacity available in Portugal” Marcel de Botton

said “and my son Filipe decided to leave his job

in the financial sector and work exclusively with

Logoplaste, asking me if I wanted to work with him

to make this process international. This was in

1990.”

The first country they decided to work in was Spain,

“a natural choice considering it’s the only country

that has a land border with Portugal, “and although

after a couple of years we had to conclude the

Spanish market wasn’t going to deliver the results

we expected, the lessons we learned from those

first years proved invaluable along the way as we

began exploring other markets”, concludes Marcel

de Botton, explaining how after Spain Logoplaste’s

model has been successfully and almost seamlessly

implemented in countries as diverse as Brazil,

France, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United

States.

MOMENTSFROM HISTORY


8

I contacted Luso, the leading mineral water brand in Portugal, and convinced them to do their bottles in plastic, because it would save weight in comparison to glass.

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UK Trainees and INOV Contacto

9

UK TRAINEES AND INOV CONTACTO

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“I FEEL THATI’M GROWING

A LOT, NOT ONLYPROFESSIONALLY,BUT PERSONALLY

AS WELL”

“There hasn’t been a day that I haven’t learned

something new,” said Andrew Hunt, 19, one of

thethree apprentices currently with us in the

UK, who is studying electrical and mechanical

engineering while working at our Logoplaste

Ashby plant. “The experience of the program and

the things I’m doing at the factory are all very

worthwhile for the mechanical and electrical sides

of my career and I wish to follow for the rest of my

life.”

Any company that depends on competent technical

staff to carry out its work also depends on

being able to find experienced staff to fill open

job positions.Logoplaste sometimes runs into

difficulties finding trained staff, and in the UK has

joined a government sponsored apprenticeship

program to help ensure there are enough qualified

people to go around and also to help young people

get the experience they need to make a life for

themselves after they leave school.

The program accepts school leavers or current

employees who meet the business skill

requirements, and are looking to progress in a

technical role. This is done through a testing and

interview process. They then go through a four year

program with the expectation that, at the end of

it, they’ll be ready to get a job in an industry that

they’ve trained for, with Logoplaste.

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“If I stay on at Logoplaste Ashby I am guaranteed

a job for life,”said Andrew, who was inspired by his

model-building hobby to seek a career working

with his hands. “This was perfect for me because

I’ve always been interested in doing things with my

hands, taking things apart and putting them back

together.”

Logoplaste introduced the program two years ago,

so no apprentices have finished it yet. There are

currently three people participating in the scheme.

Dan Nicholls, another UK apprentice, who has

been with the company for seven years saw the

program as an opportunity to gain more skills and is

currently in his second year of studies.

When they finish the program, the apprentices gain

a nationally recognized qualification and more than

likely a full-time job.

“It is Logoplate UK policy to recruit apprentices

every year,”said Lisa Hillburn, Human Resources

Director for Logoplaste UK. “We need to train a

new generation of Technicians and Engineers and

we hope they will stay with us. It is our company

belief that this structured approach enables a new

generation of staff to be recognised easily within our

business and to match their ambitions. We have a

duty to train our staff for the good of the Company

and our industry. It’s something that we’d like to

introduce as an initiative globally for Logoplaste.”

Logoplaste already participates in a similar program

in Portugal, known as INOV Contacto (and managed

by AICEP), and has already hired several of the

people who completed it. INOV Contacto takes new

graduates or young professionals with up to three

years of work experience and sends them abroad for

nine months to work in Portuguese companies.

“I heard about the program while I was still at

university,” said Mafalda Cardoso, 25, who works

in logistics at our plant in Pomezia, Italy, outside

Rome. Mafalda was already working in logistics

in the auto industry when she was accepted to

the program, which she says has been a great

experience.

“I feel that I’m growing a lot, not only

professionally, but personally as well,” she said.

“Moving abroad is a very valuable experience;

I would recommend it to other people.”

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LOGOPLASTE moves in with NESTLÉ Group

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LOGOPLASTE MOVES INWITH NESTLÉGROUP

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“WE WERE ABLE TOFINALLY IMPLEMENT

THE IN-HOUSE MODEL,A DECISION WHICH I

THINK WILL YIELDGREAT RESULTS.”

“This was the renewal of a 13-year partnership, where we went from being“near” to being “in” the house of our partner DPA; in other words, we were able to finally implement the in-house model, a decision which I think will yield great results.”

This is how Carlos Reis, director of Logoplaste in Brazil, described one of the most important events in the company’s operation in South America’s largest country, its contract with DPA, a Nestlé Group company responsible for the production of products under the Chamyto, Bliss, Ninho, Nesto and Molico brands.

The factory that Logoplaste had set up to serve the client’s operation was approximately 4 km from the DPA factory in Araras, 170 km from Sao Paulo.

Moving DPA’s industrial operation from a “nearby” model to an “in-house ”model was more than just a contract renewal; choosing Logoplaste as a partner resulted from a new tendering process in which some of the main international players in the packaging sector were involved.

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THE CONFIDENCE INLOGOPLASTE, ARISING

FROM 13 YEARSSUPPLYING THE CLIENT

WITHOUT A DROP INQUALITY

According to Paulo Finardi, Manager of the Araras Unit, the deciding factor in DPA’s choice was “the confidence in Logoplaste, arising from 13 years supplying the client without a drop inquality, always responding to requests straight away and solving all problems that came up”.

When the project is concluded towards the middle of next year, the Araras unitis expected to produce 360 million packages per year. Besides the scale of the operation, the main challenges faced by Logoplaste Brazil relate to the transfer to an “in-house”

model: “Our production line will work on the ‘just-in-time’ model, according to the client’s line, which will have to be done while maintaining productivity and quality rates”.

Following this change in the relationship model with DPA, Logoplaste now has five of its seven Brazilian units within their clients’ factories. For Carlos Reis,“this is another step to consolidate the application of our traditional model and a technological advance to develop this integrated factory”.

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WHEN A FACTORY

WORLDIS THE WHOLE

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When a Factory is the whole world

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It should have been a simple, two hour flight, direct from London’s Heathrow Airport to the French city of Lyon. Instead, it turned into any traveller’s nightmare, as the chaos that erupted with the opening of Heathrow’s new Terminal 5, forced the cancelling of hundreds of flights, including that of our new colleagues Gabriel Leal, General Manager Logoplaste Mexico and Allan Benson, Director Sales and Marketing Logoplaste USA, who were in the middle of a two-week training tour of Logoplaste plants in Portugal, the U. K., France and Spain.

Gabriel and Allan started out their trip in Portugal, where they visited Logoplaste headquarters outside the town of Cascais, and three plants within the country. Both men had started working at Logoplaste not long before and had come to Europe to meet management in Portugal and get to know about how the company’s plants operate.

“We had to get to know the factories and to know the people,” said Gabriel, Logoplaste Mexico’s General Manager. “Mexico is a new market for Logoplaste, so the task wasn’t to get to know how to use the models in

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When a Factory is the whole world

other countries, but how to be adaptable to the needs of each client.”

The trip to Portugal was the start of their adventure, which eventually led to them travelling in four countries in less than a day because of the events at Heathrow. After leaving Portugal they flew together to the U.K. to see two plants there, and their plan was to fly on to Lyon from London. That was when their careful plans went awry.

“We got caught up in the opening of BA Terminal 5” explained Allan. “It was chaotic; they cancelled hundreds of flights, including ours, so we were rerouted through Amsterdam where we ran from gate to gate. We were in four countries in one day. We started in London, flew to France via Amsterdam and then ended the day in Spain.”

The intrepid travellers didn’t let that little change in their itinerary get in the way of doing their jobs, though. They still managed to get in their scheduled visit to a plant near Lyon and then make their flight

to Barcelona ahead of another visit planned for the following day. And like most business travellers, they didn’t have much time to see much of the countries they were visiting.

Travelling around the world and having contact with new people and landscapes is an experience most people enjoy, but for the two Logoplaste managers the most important part of their trips was within four walls, in the factories they visited. “I have 2 children,” said Gabriel, “When I return from business trips, my kids think I’ve seen everything, the whole world, but really I just know the airports, the hotels and, of course, the factories”.

Today, Gabriel and Allan travel around their respective countries promoting the Logoplaste name and business model. Lots of quotes are being made and new business is soon to come.

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A STEPAHEAD

Artificial Visioning aiming at zero defects

17

ARTIFICIAL VISION AIMING AT

Zero defects. That was the goal Coca Cola set

for Logoplaste’s production of preforms for their

plant, and that spurred the Portuguese company

to start the visual inspection project carried

out at Logoplaste Mealhada, in Portugal. That

was almost three years ago, and after finding

a company to provide equipment, developing

software, and about a year of setting up the

equipment and of testing and adjustments, the

production line achieved that goal.

DEFECTS

ARTIFICIAL VISION AIMING AT

DEFECTS

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A STEPAHEAD

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Logoplaste approached a business called

EnerMeter, Sistemas de Medição Lda, based in

Braga, Portugal, and together the two companies

developed a successful automated inspection

system based on the use of artificial vision. The

equipment is integrated into the production line,

and consists of several cameras that take images

of 8 million pixels of each piece.

Those images are then fed to the computers, which

use algorithms developed by the team to inspect

the pieces for defects including irregular shapes,

the presence of air bubbles and the presence of

black spots in the preforms. A mechanical way

to line the preforms up in the correct way for

inspection, and to move defective preforms out of

the production line, had to be developed, to ensure

the goal of zero defects could be reached.

“To guarantee that level, we had no alternatives,”

said Jorge Valentim, Plant Manager of Logoplaste

Mealhada. “We needed to check production on the

line as they were being made.”

The issue now is to decide if the system should be

used on other production lines as well. The first

system was made especially for and by Logoplaste

because of the demands of a particular client,

it was a significant investment. Commercial

production of the equipment would decrease

Artificial Visioning aiming at zero defects

the cost, so if the company decides to spread its

use, the next units should be less expensive. The

equipment has already produced benefits beyond

meeting Coca Cola’s goal, said Jorge.

“In the end, we’ve been able to guarantee zero

defects,” he said. “The client gets the product he

wants, but that’s not all. Since we’re able to analyze

production automatically on the production line,

with any defect we see, the human response is

quicker and so it takes us less time to react and

correct the problem.”

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A STEPAHEAD

New Center says Logoplaste “is in America to stay”

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NEW CENTER SAYSLOGOPLASTE

“IS IN AMERICA TO STAY”

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“Logoplaste is in America to stay. That’s the

message we’re sending to our customers in North

America with the announcement of our plans to

open the company’s first research and development

unit outside Portugal. We want to make sure

everyone knows Logoplaste is dedicated to growing

even more in the new world and the new facility, is

just the way to do it”, says Rui Abelho, Managing

Director of Logoplaste North America.

“Being able to tell people that we have this center

is like telling people we’re going to be here a long

time,” said Rui, who has been at Logoplaste for

nearly 13 years. “No one will invest $3 or $4 million

dollars in a center if they’re planning to leave soon.”

The new unit will be located in Cincinnati, Ohio,

and the building we’ve found there will be the

new home of our North American headquarters.

The U.S. research center, which will report back

to the Portuguese R&D center, will be closer to

customers, and will be more responsive to the

requirements of the local market, according to

Paulo Correia, head of Logoplaste Technology.

“The U.S. companies want to be close to the

research, so the concept is to replicate what we

have here, to coordinate and develop projects

with our partners,” said Paulo. “The idea is to

understand what the needs of the U.S. market

are, because they’re not the same as in Europe.

The equipment we’re choosing will take that into

consideration.”

The unit will initially employ between 10 and 15

people, and that figure should rise to 25 to 35

people in two to three years, said Rui, who will move

from New Jersey to Ohio as part of the operation.

The Ohio site was chosen because of the presence

of a large number of potential clients in the area,

including the international headquarters of Procter

& Gamble, along with companies such as Kellogg’s.

It also has a large, qualified labor force, which will

ease hiring, said Rui.

The new center will move ahead of the Portuguese

research department on one area, according to

Paulo. The U.S. unit is being set up to integrate

design much more closely with the technical side

of the operation, which will allow a much closer

relationship with customers, if they need one.

“Normally you have a design and marketing

company that does the project, passes it to a

technical team, which then sends it back to the

design company,” explained Paulo.

“We’re doing something very different, because we

are capable of delivering a project that integrates

the design concept. By doing this we already

know that a design concept works industrially.

This leads to cost reduction, as well as a huge

reduction of the development and implementation

time. Our approach today is to bring the marketing

team of our partners to work with us either in our

development center, or we can move our people to

work with the design people at our partners at a

very early stage. This has a fantastic effect of the

project main constraints:

Time, Cost, Confidentiality and Expertise!

By controlling these factors we add something new,

and position ourselves differently in the market.”

A STEPAHEAD

New Center says Logoplaste “is in America to stay”

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LOGOPLASTE“VERY PREPARED IN ALL AREAS OFEXPERTISE”

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Logoplaste “Very prepared in all areas of expertise”

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“VERY PREPARED IN ALL AREAS OF

LOGOPLASTE

EXPERTISE”

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Logoplaste is “a very knowledgeable company with

a very competent technical group, and that’s a big

advantage for us going forward,” according to Aldo

Ronchetti, who was strategic sourcing manager

for rigid plastic packaging at Johnson & Johnson

during the process of opening a new plant in

Pomezia, Italy. “I found them to be very professional,

very prepared, in all areas of expertise, not just

packaging, but also in engineering and finance.”

Another satisfied customer, with the successful

start-up of the plant in Pomezia, Italy, which is

making Listerine bottles for pharmaceutical and

consumer health giant J&J. It was Logoplaste’s

first contract with J&J, and the New Brunswick,

N.J.-based company already sees many reasons to

continue working with Logoplaste, said Ronchetti.

The Pomezia plant is independent of J&J’s

Listerine factory, located about 100 meters away.

Because this was Logoplaste’s first contract

with the American company, there has been a

gradual process of getting to know each other

and growing accustomed to how each business

operates, according to Giuseppe Brunelli, Business

Development Manager for Logoplaste Italia.

“The situation is changing very rapidly and in a very

positive way,” he said. “We know each other much

better. They realize that we’re a partner that is

doing everything we can to supply them on time with

the right product, following the quality requirements

and I think that in a short time the partnership will

grow a lot.”

J&J has a system where certain trusted suppliers

can become what they call “integrated suppliers”.

Logoplaste’s record of reliability and its ability to

work with clients to solve problems as they arise, or

even beforehand, means the company stands a good

chance of achieving that status”, said Igor Proglhof,

J&J’s Associate Director for packaging in Europe,

the Middle East and Africa.

“Logoplaste has all the potential to be an integrated

supplier because of their business model and the

way they provide services and solutions. Being an

integrated supplier comes with some time. We

need to have some time to interact with Logoplaste

before we know”, said Igor. “We have one year’s

experience with Logoplaste now, so there are some

more steps before they can become completely

integrated.”

PARTNER’SVOICE

Logoplaste “Very prepared in all areas of expertise”

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A very specialneighbour

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IN UK

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Re-pet project in UK

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The considerations for Packaging and the environment in the UK have always been challenging. On one hand the government legislation for packaging is clever and has been in place for a long time. The market has then followed and the UK has traditionally been ahead of much of the rest of Europe in terms of demanding environmentally friendly products and packaging, and this trend is continuing.

There is a huge demand for recycled materials; however the UK has also been very slow at collection and sorting of waste versus its European neighbours and hence the amount of re-used plastic that can be put into bottles and other forms of packaging is in very short supply.

Logoplaste is already responding to the demands for greener containers by using more and more recycled material in its packaging. The UK is also very quickly tightening up regulations for collection, sorting and preparing recycled materials for the market.

Logoplaste is actively responding in this area running 50% post consumer waste (PCR) in PET bottles and has tested and is ready to run recycled HDPE material in the milk bottles to approx 10%, once we can ensure a steady supply of enough food-quality HDPE.

“In the last 18 months there have been a lot of announcements from the CEOs of major retailers saying that, with the wave of sustainable strategies, they want a much higher proportion of products being made from recycled materials,” said Martin Quigley, Finance Director for the Logoplaste UK.“There’s not enough recycled product in the market today of quality to achieve the UK dairy industry target of 30% HDPE and this will be a further 2 years away.

Fortunately, the construction of three new recycling plants in the country, and strict new recycling rules in many areas, will soon help ease that shortage. Two of the plants are expected to come on line this year with the third recently announced for 2nd half of 2009.

There should be a steady supply of material to be recycled, thanks to strict new recycling rules already approved in many parts of the U.K. In some areas of the UK, residents have to have as many as five different containers to separate their food, paper, plastic, glass and domestic rubbish.

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Re-pet project in UK

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02 six months of news and views on … and views on logoplaste’s world 02oct08 world editorial...

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