Instead of going to landfill after use, the products that can be chipped and recycled for reuse in future production.
The programme is spearheaded by Iracroft’s largest UK customer and requires all components to be packaged and protected with more sustainable parts that can be recycled and re-enter the supply chain to reduce wastage.
To overcome the challenge, Essentra Components has agreed to supply Iracroft with up to 2.5 million LPDE tear caps, said to offer the same level of product protection while being easily recyclable, enabling Iracroft to maintain the structural integrity of its original parts.
Iracroft and its customer, will in turn recycle all parts supplied through a circular chipping process, meaning all plastic will return into the manufacturing process as new products.
Richard Sederman, strategy and M&A director at Essentra Components, said the programme represented a significant step towards carbon neutral production: “This programme will act as a crucial use case for circular manufacturing processes. Utilising recycled content within our products is a great step forward and saves several tons of carbon emissions, but the true measure of success will be seeing products you originally manufactured with one purpose, return to a customer as something entirely different.
“Iracroft have been leading the charge in ensuring the supply chain makes significant moves towards net-zero, and we’re proud to have worked alongside them to offer a solution.”
The off-the-shelf solution adopted by Iracroft has also allowed its customers to save time in processing products due to its tear-off design, as well as taking advantage of shorter lead times thanks to quicker fitting and delivery times.
Iracroft company secretary and director, Alan Webb, said of the new solutions: “Essentra Components jumped into action with advice on how we could achieve sustainability, and provided samples and other resources. The fact that the solution was off-the-shelf proved invaluable in enabling us to work with the minimum of disruption. This could be a real game-changer for our customers and our own business.”
