The use of plastics, an essential component of our contemporary economy, has increased by twenty times over the past fifty years and a growing trend of double that value is the forecast for the next twenty years. The concern grows for sustainability for the industries of the plastics sector, not only from the undeniably important ethical aspect, but also from the practical aspect of sustainability of the plastics sector itself. In fact, 15% of plastic packaging materials are recycled worldwide, versus the well over 35% of European countries.
A growing Bandera need stemming from this very concern is the wish to manifest to the exterior, through a specific campaign, the actions taken and the efforts spent daily for a long time to present in the direction of sustainability.
In this respect, Bandera’s efforts and actions have moved well beyond laboratory studies. In fact, they have designed and are manufacturing an industrial scale extrusion line dedicated to exploring and studying the productive capabilities of biological materials and of recycled materials, for further refining through specific processes. The line in question is the Condor Line, which is a flat die extrusion line, equipped with an innovative extrusion coating section. This will be fully assembled and operating as of September 2018 at the Bandera R&D Centre, the House of Extrusion, at Bandera Headquarters in Busto Arsizio (VA).
This is an extrusion line that Bandera is making available to packaging material manufacturers wanting to work side by side with their R&D team, to test jointly new ideas and applications in the plastics materials processing sector.
“This is no news for Bandera” remarks Dr. Andrea Rigliano, Sales Director at Bandera, “since Bandera has always been a pioneer of innovation, which has been the leading theme throughout the long history of this company, with the development of cutting edge industrial solutions, oriented towards detecting positive market trends well beyond than just fulfilling satisfactorily customer requirements.”
At present, Bandera is re-thinking about the regeneration and new use of the polymers adopted in packaging, with in mind the objective of adapting this industrial sector in order for it to comply with the rules that will apply in the very near future. This is the challenge of the years to come. Bandera’s research and development activities in such direction focus on reducing the demand for raw materials that are not renewable. In fact, Bandera operates in favor of a circular economy oriented towards making the most of the materials at each stage of the process, to minimize residues, optimize resources, generate savings and contribute, not only to improve the quality of life for consumers, but also to generate new profits for companies manufacturing packaging materials.
