We turned to you, our customers, to understand and answer your most frequently asked questions

1. We are more than a year into the EPR journey but we are still unsure if we are compliant. Can Mpact Plastics assist us?

Yes, Mpact can assist you in your EPR journey. Firstly, our registration with PRO’s PETCO, POLYCO, COPCO and the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) means that you are partially EPR compliant with all the packaging items that we supply to you, provided you have not elected to pay your levies directly to a PRO and informed Mpact accordingly. It is our responsibility, as a company that upholds its values and acts as a good corporate citizen, to support proactive initiatives such as this, and to encourage compliance. We are existing members of Packaging SA, Plastics SA, SAVA and Vinyl Loop.

As a valued customer, you have direct access to our university affiliated, state-of-the-art Research and Development Centre, based in Stellenbosch that ensures the latest packaging related food safety standards and EPR regulations are adhered to. Our team is widely respected for their expert knowledge about Extended Producer Responsibility schemes. This allows us to create accurate content to engage with the industry at large and eliminate the legacy of misinformation to promote real-time, smarter sustainable solutions and comply with regulation.

For guidance or information, you may contact your key account manager or our EPR experts directly on az.oc.tcapm@RPE. You may also refer to our news article for valuable information, targets, registration links, fees and contact details.

2. How can we make our packaging more recyclable?

The recyclability of a packaging product depends on several factors such as the pack design, material grade and the availability of a well-established recycling stream within South Africa.

Recycling truly starts with packaging design. Adhering to ‘design for recycling’ principles such as wide necks to reduce product residue, nestable items, material identification symbols, minimal component use, additive and colour free resins, water-soluble inks and removable labels all contributes to making a pack recycling friendly.

At Mpact Plastics’ Design Centre, our lifecycle approach focuses on designing packaging for recycling whilst also taking factors such as customer design and filling requirements, brand positioning, supply chain requirements, costs, and product preservation into account.

The use of rPET, rHDPE and rPP also assists in closing the loop and presents the opportunity to not only remove plastic from landfill but also strengthen the various recycling streams. With major developmental strides already made across all resin types, brands and converters have collectively proven that significant positive environmental changes can be made with minimal disruptions to the market and the end users.

The Mpact Plastics team can guide your packaging decision-making by not only optimising the recyclability of your packaging item through appropriate design, but by also presenting the many recycled material options available and guiding your product trials.

3. How are my products produced?

At Mpact Plastics, we use several production technologies to produce and decorate your packaging. Our main technologies include extrusion blow moulding, injection moulding, single and two stage injection stretch blow moulding, injection blow moulding, thermoforming, extrusion moulding, and compression moulding.

Each technology and product, which can be viewed from the video links above, requires its own unique set of moulds. Moulds are interchangeable across production machines but not across technologies, and takes several hours to complete. Production is optimised through careful planning that aims to reduce mould changes to achieve longer manufacturing runs and manage the associated operational cost, for our customers’ benefit.

Multi-coloured, detailed decorating options that are skilfully applied onto our packaging includes in-mould label application, self-adhesive labels, screen and pad printing, shrink sleeving, and embossing. Through the appropriate application, the life-like graphics offered by these various decorating options aim to meet various LSM category’s financial and brand identity needs.

4. What affects the lead times for supplying my products?

Production is carefully planned to meet all customer needs whilst keeping operational cost at bay. An agreed level of stock is maintained for most custom designed products and managed according to customer demand forecasts. Stock for customised generic packaging items is maintained in a ‘work in progress’ state to allow customers to acquire stock upon demand at shorter-than-usual lead times yet enjoy the benefit of partly customised products, of smaller volumes. We maintain lower volumes of generic items and continually encourage all our customers to communicate changing forecast requirements, new market trends and operational changes that will allow us to best prepare for meeting their supply needs. To view our custom, customised generic and generic product ranges, simply follow the links above or visit www.mpactplastics.co.za or www.mpactversapak.co.za.

Lead times are also unfortunately affected by factors outside of our control, such as loadshedding and raw material shortages. We have, over the past years, applied various methodologies to these situations which has allowed us to mitigate some risks successfully. Our investment in solar panels and generators has lessened the impact of some production stoppages whilst it has also allowed for administrational functions to proceed without interruption. Raw material stock is secured for a period of up to six months and with sufficient production planning, we are also able to adopt a strategy of sharing raw material across production sites, where feasible.

5. What is Mpact and Mpact Plastics and Mpact Versapak doing to be more sustainable?

Mpact is committed to maintaining high standards of corporate governance, demonstrating ethical behaviour and responsible conduct. We manage our environmental impacts responsibly and our integrated business model gives effect to a circular economy that reduces waste and greenhouse gas emissions. Our full sustainability report can be viewed online.

By collecting paper, plastics and other recyclable materials through Mpact Recycling, the group performs a valuable environmental role that effectively reduces waste to landfill and creates jobs through the collection process.

The plastics business uses recycled polymers in production to client specifications and where possible, virgin polymers are purchased preferentially from local suppliers.

Our sustainability talks are not just claims but are practically executed.

Mpact Versapak thermoform products contain between 30% and 100% recycled content and we now use 100% recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) in our fruit punnets.

We have also increased rPET usage from 10% to 15% for most CSD preforms and all oil bottles now use 20% rPET. In addition, we have converted green preforms to clear preforms, to promote recycling.

In 2021, 30% of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) bottles for the food industry were converted to polyethylene terephthalate (PET).

Our PET honey range has been nominated for a 2022 Gold Pack award for this achievement. Our next focus will be to convert an additional 200 tonnes of pharmaceutical PVC bottles to PET. Approximately five tonnes of printed PET bottles have also been moved from virgin PET to 100% recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) and our move from multilayer to monolayer modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) trays, that extends the shelf life of meat products, means that the tray is now 100% recyclable.

In 2021, we manufactured 50% of our personal care closures, used in the hospitality industry, with 100% recycled polypropylene (rPP). In 2022 we successfully converted recycled polypropylene (rPP) caps for Unilever’s Organics shampoo range, proving that rPP is feasible for use on rHDPE bottles.

We have increased the amount of home care bottles manufactured using recycled high density polyethylene (rHDPE), for which we have received a Gold Pack Award in 2021 and have replaced printing of our carbonated soft drink compression moulded closures (CSD8) with an embossed finish.

In conclusion, we will continue to educate rather than communicate, and we encourage open communication channels between all industry stakeholders, to not only deliver exceptional customer value but to stay true to our purpose of delivering smarter, sustainable solutions.

For more information, read our full article here or visit our websites at www.mpactplastics.co.za and www.mpactversapak.co.za.