Recycling

Elevating Sustainability through Innovative Recycling Practices in Logistics:

In the logistics segment, plastic stands as a cornerstone material. It delivers exceptional protection during transport and ensures secure storage conditions. Recognizing its cost-effectiveness, widespread availability, and extended service life, plastic significantly curbs the pace of waste generation in this industry. At the conclusion of its service life, plastic emerges as a prime candidate for recycling, rejoining the cycle to extend its utility.

At Logimarkt, our commitment to sustainability goes beyond the ordinary. Our research and development team tirelessly seeks solutions to champion waste reduction and resource efficiency, aligning with the global push towards a greener future. Here’s how we’re making a difference:

  1. Enhancing Packaging Sustainability: We continuously strive to raise the sustainability quotient of our packaging solutions, ensuring they align with eco-friendly practices.
  2. Decreasing Fossil Fuel Dependency: Recognizing the environmental impact, we actively reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. A notable example is that 1 ton of recycled plastic saves a significant 16 barrels of oil.
  3. Mitigating Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Our efforts extend to curbing greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to a lower carbon footprint in the logistics sector.
  4. Reducing Plastic Waste Volume: By championing recycling, we play a pivotal role in saving storage space—1 ton of recycled plastic can save an impressive 7.4 cubic meters of storage.
  5. Conserving Energy: Our commitment extends to energy conservation. Remarkably, 1 ton of recycled plastic can save a substantial 5,774 kW/h in energy.
  6. Expanding Packaging Reuse Options: We invest in continuous research, development, and testing to broaden the horizons of packaging reuse, fostering a circular economy.

 

Implementing Waste Management Principles at Logimarkt:

We diligently put waste management principles into action, with a commitment to minimizing environmental impact and fostering sustainability.

First Principle: Reduce Waste Volume and Pace of Generation

We produce high-quality items resilient to intensive, long-term use—crafted from prime-grade and recycled materials. This ensures durability, reducing the frequency of replacements and minimizing waste and consumption. Our products are designed to withstand wear and tear, breaking only under exceptional conditions, contributing to a significant reduction in waste.

Second Principle: Products Reusable for Varied Applications

Our Research and Development (R&D) team actively promotes versatile solutions that go beyond their initial purpose. Examples include:

  • Internal Separators: Foldable or compact options for crates, boxes, or containers, ensuring adaptability and space efficiency.
  • Label Holders: Allow labels to be changed, making crates, bins, totes, and pallets suitable for a variety of products.
  • Injected Plastic Packaging: With folding or nesting features, reducing storage costs and promoting multiple reuse cycles.
  • Customizations: Quick-access features like loading/unloading doors or drop doors, offering flexibility based on application needs.
  • Accessories: Wheels/ casters, trolleys, lids or covers, interlayers, and seals or safety elements enhance adaptability for different uses.

Third Principle: Recycling

When products reach the end of their service life, we prioritize responsible recycling. Damaged packaging is collected and sent to specialized recycling centers, where it’s transformed into raw material for new products. This cyclical approach ensures sustainability, with the original material being reused up to 4-5 times. The energy consumption for recycled plastic packaging is notably lower (up to 25-30%) compared to using raw materials.

Recycling

We strongly advocates for returnable packaging over single-use options. Proper plastic management, responsible waste collection, and recycling play pivotal roles in creating a sustainable, environmentally conscious approach. Making these choices can make a significant difference in fostering a greener future.

 

Recycling Processes

  • Collection of Items:

We initiate the process by collecting a variety of items, including containers with HDPE and PP materials, rigid containers, boxes, crates, totes, bins, foldable containers, pallets, trays, and more.

  • Cleaning and Preparation:

Upon receipt, items undergo a thorough cleaning process, removing labels, stickers, residues, contaminants, metallic holders, hinges, and seals to prepare them for the recycling process.

  • Size Reduction:

The items are then ground down into small bits, setting the stage for further processing.

  • Profound and Fine Milling:

Crates are precisely reduced to small flakes through profound and fine milling. This step is critical for ensuring the comprehensive cleaning of the plastic, preventing impurities that could compromise the quality of the entire batch.

Recycling process

  • Additional Filtering:

Further filtering with magnets is employed to eliminate any metallic parts that may have been missed in the initial processing steps.

  • Washing and Drying:

The plastic flakes undergo careful washing and drying, ensuring they are pristine before being transferred to the injection molding department.

Recycling process

    • Separation by Weight (if necessary):

Flakes can be separated by weight by placing them in water, allowing lightweight ones to float while dense ones settle at the bottom. This separation aids in defining properties such as melting point or color.

Recycling process

  • Melting and Injection Molding:

The final step involves melting the plastic flakes and injecting the paste into molds, crafting new products that retain the important characteristics of the original material.

The result? Plastic packaging waste is given a new life at a low cost, with the resulting products maintaining the essential qualities of the original. During the injection process, where plastic is melted at temperatures up to 250°C, any bacteria or contaminants are eradicated, ensuring a high level of hygiene for the newly created products. We transform waste into valuable resources while upholding quality and hygiene standards.

 

Optimizing Resources through Reverse Logistics at Logimarkt:

Waste isn’t merely a byproduct of products reaching the end of their life cycle; it’s a challenge throughout the supply chain. We recognize the importance of reverse logistics, a strategic approach that addresses the complexities of waste management.

Why Reverse Logistics Matters:

  1. Unsold or Unusable Products:
    • Products that don’t reach customers for various reasons, such as batches becoming obsolete or having imperfections, or perishable items reaching expiration.
  2. Customer Returns:
    • Items returned by customers for reasons like flaws, transport damage, unmet expectations, quick breakage, or outdated products.

Managing Rejected Products:

To minimize waste, rejected products are preferred to be returned to the producer. However, alternatives include selling on secondary markets, reusing components, repairing, recycling, or returning packaging for reuse in new deliveries.

Benefits of Reverse Logistics:

  1. Reduces Waste: This approach significantly cuts down on waste, contributing to a more sustainable supply chain.
  2. Increases Customer Satisfaction:
    • Handling returns efficiently and offering alternatives enhances customer satisfaction, fostering loyalty.
  3. Generates Supplier Appreciation:
    • By actively participating in reverse logistics, Logimarkt demonstrates commitment to sustainability, earning appreciation from clients.

About Logimarkt’s Approach to Reverse Logistics for Packaging

For packaging materials like pallets, containers, boxes, and crates, our adopted concept of reverse logistics involves refurbishing or recycling deteriorated items. This not only avoids increased costs associated with prime-grade materials but also minimizes expenses related to waste disposal and storage.

While reverse logistics may involve added complexities, including planning, rigorous control, managing pick-up points, and potential additional costs, Logimarkt recommends and embraces this practice. Furthermore, adhering to European regulations, particularly the 2018 European Commission’s Framework directive on waste, is paramount. These regulations prioritize waste reduction, prevention, reuse, and recycling, reserving incineration only as a last resort, with strict guidelines for energy recovery and disposal. By aligning with these regulations, we meet compliance and actively contribute to a more sustainable and responsible business model.

 

It’s important for us to make recycling easy and rewarding for our clients. Here are some steps we currently run to make things as lucrative as possible:

  1. Return Old Items for a Discount:
  • Clients can return old pallets, crates, boxes, bins, and containers to designated collection points. As a thank-you gesture, Logimarkt offers a discount on subsequent orders. This not only cuts costs for clients but also promotes a safer environment by avoiding the disposal of worn-out equipment.
  1. Choose Reliable Recycled Products:
  • Opt for products made from recycled injected plastic. They are sustainable, safe, and as reliable and durable as those made from raw materials. Logimarkt’s recycled products suit various applications, with few exceptions related to specific standards or regulations.

And since we prioritizes customer preferences, even during the recycling process, we can even achieve a change in color during this process. Typically we’re talking a darker shade or a similar color, but our team is available to provide recommendations or proposals regarding color changes or size modifications for crates, bins, totes, containers, or pallets.

 Modern recycling methods employed by Logimarkt ensure that recycled products are as resistant and practical as their original counterparts. With newly developed procedures, the transformation of old, deteriorated products costs less than the original production. Customers engaging in this waste reduction process recover the remaining value of their unusable items.

Target: Zero Waste

We proudly align with the “zero waste” principle, considering waste as a valuable resource. All collected products are transformed to create new items. This approach is efficient, convenient, and ecological, contributing to a cleaner and safer environment.

Responsible handling of waste as a resource. The “zero waste” target emphasizes the first steps of the waste hierarchy—prevention, reuse, and recycling, in line with the 2018 Framework directive by the European Commission.

 

Entrusting us with your packaging production project, means aligning with a company that respects strict quality protocols, actively seeks the best solutions, and prioritizes the interests of its clients and society. Every action toward sustainability, no matter how small, counts, contributing to a cleaner, safer environment and promoting healthy and non-polluting consumption principles and habits. At Logimarkt, we believe in making a positive impact, one step at a time.