Plastics News - Show Daily - October 25, 2022 - 19

SHOW DAILY
Plastics News, October 25, 2022 * 19
PlastiWeber sees growth as aid to the environment
By Jim Johnson
Plastics News Staff
PlastiWeber has been closing
the loop for a long, long time.
And the Brazilian company is
looking to signifi cantly expand
its ability to recapture, process
and create new fi lm products out
of low and liner low density polyethylene
fi lm.
The Feliz, Brazil-based operation
is tucked away in a small
booth, but the fi rm has big plans
to quadruple production during
the next few years, according to
PlastiWeber
Industrial Director
Leandro
Weber.
He
is
part
of the second
generation of
the Weber famWeber
ily
that started
PlastiWeber
about 25 years
ago, an operation
that began
after
his
parents
saw
a need to rescue
used agricultural
fi lm
in strawberry
fi elds from improper
disposal,
burning and
littering.
This compaRissi
ny,
born as a
mom-and-pop
business with
a desire to stop
plastics' negative
impact on the environment,
has grown over the years to now
employ 250 people with an output
of about 10,000 tons of new
fi lm goods each year.
" We are looking for partners.
We already have a very good business
due to the very high quality.
But we also realize the world
needs support, so we are looking
for partners, " said Giovani Otavio
Rissi, a packaging consultant who
works with the company.
PlastiWeber expects to expand
the company by about 20 percent
in 2022 with plans to dramatically
increase production to 40,000
tons by 2025. But that kind of
growth will require new customers
and partnerships, and PlastiWeber
is on the show fl oor promoting
its message and looking
for partners.
PlastiWeber has used the last
25 years to create a business by
making incremental changes that
have resulted in a modern integrated
approach that collects
used plastic fi lms, processes
them into pellets and then extrudes
them into new products,
the two men explained.
" There is an investment, an
expansion in their facility, to
quadruple their production. And
what they are looking for is fi nal
users, because the production
capacity, the know-how is already
developed and it's proprietary.
Nothing rocket science. Many
small tricks that play a big role in
the fi nal packaging, " Rissi said.
Taking the company to that
scale, however, will require more
customers wanting to purchase
the company's output. PlastiWeber
now sells to a variety of applications,
including 100 percent
recycled shrink and case wraps.
MIDDLE EAST
& AFRICA
5-7 September 2023 Dubai
Growth over the years has made
PlastiWeber the second-largest
employer in its hometown, a point
of pride for the company.
As PlastiWeber increases capacity
at its original location in
Feliz, the company also has a vision
of building additional operations
in other parts of Brazil.
" The recycling rates in Brazil
are very small, therefore the opportunities
can be massive, " Weber
said through translation.
" Brazil is a low-income country.
There is a lot of littering and a lot
of work to do. The vision is that
they will expand inside of Brazil
for teaching the people that the
plastic material is not a pollution,
but a solution if handled properly, "
Weber said.
To help fi nd buyers
for the company's
increasing
output in Feliz,
the company also
is looking for new
international partners
interested
in
the fi rm's 100 percent recycled
fi lm products.
PlastiWeber, because it makes
fi lm products from its own recycled
resin created from materials
it collects on its own, has a deep
understanding of the entire manufacturing
process. Integration has
helped inform the fi rm about how
to make improvements throughout
the system over the years.
" They have this learning and
know-how about waste managePlastiWeber
began as a mom-and-pop business with a desire to stop
plastics' negative impact on the environment and has grown over the
years to now employ 250 people with an output of about 10,000 tons
of new fi lm goods each year. Plastics News photo by Marco Stepniak
ment. Then you go to this second
step which is sorting and making
the recyclables. They have learned
how to do that in a very specifi c
way in order to have high-quality
recyclates. Then there is this third
step, which is making the packaging
out of it, " Rissi said.
" With this, you can close the loop
of the circular economy because
they handle everything. They have
the sourcing as the fi rst step, the
packaging production and the customers
that use the packaging itself, "
Weber said through Rissi. " A
really circular process. "
PLASTIWEBER
Hall 7, Level 1,
Booth D08
Dubai World Trade Centre, Dubai
Interested in showcasing your products and services
to buyers in UAE? 2023 will see the launch of the
Plastics Recycling Show Middle East & Africa.
To book your stand contact Matt Barber,
Global Events Director, Crain Communications
0 mabarber@crain.com 1 +44 (0)7739 302081
Organised by
www.prseventmea.com
Supported by
PRS ME&A 2023 Junior page ad K show daily.indd 1
06/10/2022 15:00
Find out
more on
our stand
in Hall 6
Stand C08
http://www.prseventmea.com
Plastics News - Show Daily - October 25, 2022

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