Sustainability

REPI promotes sustainable development to protect the environment and future generations by offering solutions that favour the use of recycled plastics.

Social Responsibility

For REPI development is only possible if it is sustainable over time. This means, for REPI, having particular attention and sensitivity in its business choices and in recognizing the need for continuous evolution and achievement of objectives that protect and improve the world we live in today and that we will leave to our children tomorrow.

The REPI GROUP undertakes to manage its plants in full compliance with current regulations on environmental protection, minimizing energy consumption and fighting against any waste of resources. Inside the REPI plants there is rigorous collection and recycling of waste, so that nothing that is recyclable is lost. The REPI offices are also committed to promoting civic education for students in their area, who will be the adults of tomorrow.

REPI's liquid technology for sustainable development

REPI promotes sustainable development to protect its territory and future generations by offering solutions that favour the use of recycled plastics. The liquid colouring and additive technology can be undoubtedly defined as a sustainable technology, because it brings a limited contribution to CO2 emissions (Carbon Footprint) in its entire life cycle and in any case lower than traditional technologies used for the production of solid masterbatches that colour plastics.

From the REPI know-how, the REFIT brand was created in 2019 representing the Group's vision on how to integrate technology into sustainability. REFIT is based on an all-round approach to the topic of circular economy, which has its main objective in reducing the Carbon Footprint of all our activities. Only by keeping this data under control will it be possible to achieve an economy both advanced and sustainable at the same time. REFIT involves the internal production processes of the REPI sites and a range of solutions that facilitate and support the use of recycled polymers. The lower environmental impact of liquid technology compared to solid MB technology can be found in all phases of the colour / additive life cycle, as shown below.

In each step of the liquid technology life cycle a lower environmental impact can be proven, mainly due to the following reasons:

Manufacturing technology uses/requires significantly less energy, since it does not need high temperatures and is therefore environmentally friendly.
The high concentration and colouring power of the liquid colour versus a solid masterbatch. This involves the use of fewer quantities of raw materials, transport and storage of reduced volumes, and the use of less product by the consumer.

REPI actively supports the use of recycled polymers for a variety of applications, first of all plastic packaging, but not only: also for recycled PU and TPU, REPI offers additives that facilitate their recovery and reuse so that no resources are wasted.

What does it mean to move from a linear economy to a circular economy?

The economic growth model that has characterized the world economy in the last century is defined as a "linear economy", a market economy based on the extraction of raw materials, on mass production and consumption and on the disposal of waste once the product’s end of life is reached.

The incessant flow of extraction and disposal, expensive and inefficient, is one of the main causes of phenomena such as the emission of greenhouse gases, marine and terrestrial pollution and consequential climate change, as well as having implications for the global geopolitical balance. The implementation of an alternative development model is necessary and desirable: the valorisation of consumption waste, the extension of the product life cycle, the use of recycled raw materials, the use of energy from renewable sources, are all able to trigger a responsible way of producing and consuming, which improves the environmental conditions of our planet and the life of its inhabitants.

The alternative developed by illustrious thinkers such as physicists, economists, architects, designers is that of a new, more sustainable model called the "circular economy".

An economic system designed to be able to regenerate itself, where the flows of materials are divided into two types:

Biological waste, capable of being reintegrated into the biosphere;
Technical waste, destined to be revalued without entering the biosphere.

This definition comes from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, one of the most active organisations in promoting this development model, which has estimated that the circular economy can generate an economic benefit of 1,800 billion euros by 2030, can give a boost to GDP by an additional 7 percentage points, can create new jobs and increase annual resource productivity by 3%.

The circular economy is based on three principles:

Reduce product packaging, waste of raw materials, quantities of products and materials that are not needed and that are thrown away without even being used;
Reuse what we throw away and reintroduce it into production cycles, thus extending the life cycle of goods;
Recycle non-usable scraps and waste, in such a way as to recover materials, to create new products, avoiding waste of resources and reducing the overall quantity of waste destined for landfills.

It is precisely around these three aspects that world economies are building a new paradigm of sustainability, innovation and competitiveness, in a scenario where even waste is turned from a problem into a resource.