What If Plastic Would Disappear? a Whitepaper About Sustainability
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What if plastic would disappear? A whitepaper about sustainability www.rompagroup.com T +31 13 594 20 20 How a manufacturer of plastic products can contribute to a cleaner environment? In today’s society, a life without plastic is virtually unthinkable. Nevertheless, the material plays an important role in the world’s waste problem, which grows worse by the day. To curb the environmental harm caused by plastic, it is important that everyone thinks along about how to reduce the volume of waste we produce together. That means Rompa Group has to accept its responsibility as well. Your worldwide production partner Unfortunately, recycling plastic is not always as easy as it sounds. At the moment, only 9% of the With our production sites spread across three continents, we are in world’s plastic waste is being recycled. The improvements that have to be made to the process of a great position to provide local for local production. This advantage collecting, sorting and cleaning plastics and plastic products pose an enormous challenge. leads to increased efficiency, more flexibility and low transport costs. As a result of our global quality standards, our customers can benefit Nevertheless, plastic is not just a source of problems. Its use also offers some major benefits. For from the same excellent service levels and quality no matter where example, it is highly suitable for use as a sustainable and lightweight construction, for protection and they are. as a packaging material to preserve food. Putting a complete stop to the use of plastic is therefore an unrealistic goal. www.rompagroup.com By working together and sharing knowledge, we and other businesses in the plastics industry can +31 6 1233 6203 contribute to a cleaner environment. Rompa Group is more than willing to accept this [email protected] responsibility. In this whitepaper, we will tell you all you need to know about the sustainability of plastic. We will cover a number of topics, including the product life cycle, recycling and bioplastics. The information in this whitepaper will help you improve the sustainability of your production processes. What if plastic would disappear? 4 5 How to create a sustainable product life cycle As an organisation, you want to achieve success with your products. Exactly when you are successful depends on myriad factors. Firstly, it is important to your buyers and customers that your product offers excellent value for money. At the same time, the sustainability of a product is an increasingly important aspect for many. A study conducted by Sanoma shows that 61% of Dutch consumers (no international data are available) are actually willing to pay more for sustainable products and services. Think of e.g. biological food, solar panels, electric cars and clothing made from biological cotton, as well as recycled plastic, smart software to save energy and CO2 reducing holidays. It pays to invest in sustainability Investing in sustainability products can definitely pay off. When is a product sustainable? When it is made from recycled materials? When energy is saved during its production? When it has a long(er) life cycle? When you opt for a sustainable transport method? If it can be recycled again at the end of its life cycle? As you can see, there are ways to make a product more sustainable at every phase of its life cycle. In this chapter, we will tell you more about this. What is a sustainable product life cycle? For a sustainable product life cycle, it is important to reduce the product’s environmental impact to a minimum at every stage of its life cycle: from design to end of life. The three phases of a product life cycle From a production perspective, a product life cycle generally consists of three phases: 1. Beginning of life (BOL) 2. Middle of life (MOL) 3. End of life (EOL) What if plastic would disappear? 6 7 The three phases of a product life cycle Ad. 1) BOL: improved sustainability during tually reach the final phase. Instead, they never the initial phase stop growing. It may come as a surprise that Since the 1950s The beginning-of-life phase includes everything this is actually a good thing from a related to product development: the design, the sustainability perspective. Below, we will explain development, the testing and the initial how that works. marketing of a new product. Especially during this phase, there is a lot you can do when it Prolonging the maturity phase with an comes to sustainability. This is the stage at extension strategy which you make decisions with regard to When the sales of your product start to go materials, processes and production sites. down, e.g. because the product is outdated or These are all key factors that determine the there is too much competition on the market, product’s ecological footprint. The choices you it enters the decline phase. At that point, you make during the beginning-of-life phase can decide to start developing an entirely new affect all other phases of the product life cycle. product. A more sustainable choice would be For example, if you opt for reusable materials to utilise an extension strategy to prolong your during the design process, you ensure your product’s maturity phase and postpone the product can get a second lease on life later on. decline phase. This allows you to utilise your Instead of simply throwing it out, you reuse or existing production facilities for longer. The recycle it. following extension strategies are available: Ad 2) MOL: the prime of a product’s life • Rebranding is about creating a new look & feel The middle-of-life phase contains most of the for an existing product in order to stand out marketing and sales activities. When you look at from the competition. You can do this by adding the product life cycle from a marketing an extra feature, e.g. by implementing an IoT perspective, the cycle begins with the initial application in a product. There are various ways We'have created marketing and ends when sales numbers start to do this; Rompa Group’s engineers and to drop. The diagram below illustrates that the developers are happy to think along with you. marketing product cycle consists of four phases: introduction, growth, maturity and • Advertising after rebranding: with this decline. strategy, you try to reach a new audience and 6,3 billion tons of become top-of-mind again for your current When a product has reached the maturity stage, audience. its sales figures are up and it generates a profit. You can use this profit to invest in innovative • Price cut by lowering your price, you make plastic and sustainable products or processes. For the your product more interesting to many continued success of your company, it is potential customers. A good way to important to keep your product in this phase compensate for these costs is by producing for as long as possible. Some products never ac- locally, near where your customers are. Besides What if plastic would disappear? 8 9 being sustainable, it can also be highly of your inventory. Think of e.g. actively avoiding cost-effective, e.g. because you save on surpluses, involving your employees in keeping transport costs and need less inventory. inventory levels down, improving the turnover rate and utilising Just-In-Time (JIT) deliveries. • Exploring new markets, perhaps there are new opportunities for your product in other Vendor Managed Inventory The worldwide countries. In chapter 5 of this whitepaper, we If you want to handle your inventory explain how you can make your production management in a smart and sustainable process for the international market as manner, there is another option: VMI or Vendor sustainable as possible. Managed Inventory. In this concept, Rompa plastic mountain Group can manage your inventory for you. This Sustainable inventory management method offers a range of benefits, such as: The better your inventory matches the demands of the market, the lower the risk of • Tailoring your production even more you being stuck with a large quantity of effectively to the expected demand from end unsellable products if the market collapses. customers Both from a financial point of view and from • Optimal product availability the perspective of sustainability, it is therefore • Less storage space needed essential to optimise your inventory • Better transport planning management. That requires a ton of market knowledge and feeling. Ad 3) EOL: the end of a product’s life cycle. What now? Rompa Group proactively supports your During the EOL phase, a product has reached business with optimising and improving the the end of its life cycle. The product is no longer sustainability of your inventory processes. We being sold or promoted. If your product is in think along and work together with you. For this phase, there are still things you can do to example, we can adjust the delivery time of a improve the sustainability of your business product in order to reduce your inventory. It is operations. For example, you can look for ways also possible to only have essential products in to recycle or reuse (parts of) your remaining stock. There are other ways to reduce the size stock. would be bigger than the Mount Everest What if plastic would disappear? 10 11 The principles of sustainable design By choosing a sustainable design method, you can take the product’s entire life cycle into account during the earliest phase. This means thinking at an early stage about the product’s manufacturability, use, market introduction and end-of-life phase. For example, it is possible to significantly increase the recyclability of your product through its design.