The Coats approach to packaging materials, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Our efforts to reduce our packaging can sometimes be hampered by local or national legislation. We do reduce packaging in the markets where this is possible. For markets that require more labelling we source recycled materials where appropriate, all the while mindful of how our materials can be recycled in turn.
Reduce
For example, where legally permissible, we have dropped all printing on primary packaging, reducing inking and finishing processes. Similarly, we are able to completely remove the bags from the cone protectors in certain markets, and in many cases we have reduced the amount of card used in boxing by revisiting the box construction and stacking standards. And since reducing the use of 1 ton of cardboard saves over 9 cubic yards of landfill space, we’re only too happy to reduce the burden with our efforts.
Reuse
We are also pretty keen to make sure our waste is useful and reused. Although our research and development team are working on biodegradable options for packaging, in many cases we prefer to encourage reuse as this solution can be practical and make more sense environmentally. For example, our Sri Lanka operations have introduced reusable plastic cone boxes and in China, our customers have adopted our reusable bobbin centres.
Recyle
Currently 80% of the cardboard we procure has some recycled content with well over half of our consumption recycled in total. This saves some 2120 tonnes of virgin cardboard, per year, or 36,040 trees*, which frankly we are thrilled about. We have also developed a fully recycled thread offer – made from plastic soda bottles, Coats Ecoverde Polyester offers a complete range of textured and continuous filament sewing threads for apparel. Coats Ecoverde Polyester is a sewing thread range made from recycled plastic (PET) bottle flakes.
This material is approved by EPA (Environment Protection Administration Executive Yuan R.O.C.) and
meets OekoTex certification standards.The PET bottle is a very useful container but it is a problem for the environment as it is non-biodegradable.
With millions of such bottles being produced daily around the world, the disposal of the used bottles has
become a major concern.
Coats has introduced a method by which these used bottles can be recycled. They are collected from consumers, washed, sorted and
ground into flakes. The flake is then depolymerised back into its original components (EG and PTA), and
converted into a new polyester raw material. This can be used to replace traditional polyester chips which
are derived from oil. The recycled raw material is then extruded, drawn and texturised to become the filament yarn from which EcoVerde polyester
sewing threads are made.
EcoVerde polyester (pdf)