In a move to highlight its environmentally friendly processing practices, flexible plastic films extruder alesco has formed a new subsidiary, alesco green packaging GmbH. The new company already has a prize to place in its foyer, too.
The processor has two facilities, in Langerwehe und Alsdorf (both Germany), where its 210 employees extrude, convert and print some 45,000 tonnes of plastic film annually. The firm also claims that its films are climate neutral (more on that here).
Managing Director of the new subsidiary is Philipp Depiereux. The parent company's director, Gunter Depiereux, also has made a move, but into retirement. The new subsidiary will not only extrude "green" film, but also develop strategies for developing and marketing the films.
One of the company's films, its Bioshrink shrink films for beverage six-packs, won second place in the contest for the "Most innovative biomaterial of 2009" in a contest decided at the recent Biomaterials conference in Stuttgart, Germany. The shrink film is made of a compostable plastic, polylactic acid (PLA). The project overcame the problem of converting these materials in such a way as to realize sufficient shrinkage and surface properties for the application. The company markets the films, which have food contact permission, with up to eight-color printing, using water-based inks. —Matt Defosse
