Mannok Awarded Silver Plastic Pledge Award at Prestigious Repak Pakman Awards
Mannok have been awarded a Silver Award at the Repak Pakman Plastic Pledge Awards 2020 in recognition of the company’s extensive work to make their products and operations more sustainable.
The company’s achievements include the development of their ground-breaking flagship solution, Detecta by Mannok, the first fully recyclable black plastic packaging, as well as two other innovative solutions designed to tackle specific recyclability issues, Orbital by Mannok and Signum by Mannok. In the space of just one year, Mannok have emerged as true leaders in the drive to develop more sustainable packaging solutions, with the launch of these three pioneering products and a host of additional sustainability initiatives.
The Pakman awards are the premier national environmental and sustainability awards in Ireland, that recognise excellence in recycling and waste management among businesses, organisations, community groups and initiatives in Ireland.
Due to the impact of Covid-19, this year’s awards did not include the full list of 14 categories seen in previous years, but rather the focus was solely on the Repak Plastic Pledge, with three categories of gold, silver and bronze, and one overall winner. With 125 Plastic Pledge signatories, there was a broad spectrum of organisations represented, and the shortlist included 13 very strong awards entrants.
In addition to Mannok’s Silver Award, the company were among three finalists for the overall Plastic Pledge Award winner, alongside Coca Cola and Aldi, with Aldi picking up the main prize.
Repak’s Plastic Pledge is a comprehensive commitment to reduce plastic packaging waste and help Ireland play its part in achieving the goals set out in the EU Circular Economy Package. The Pledge includes five overarching commitments, each with their own set of measurable targets. These five core commitments are:
1. PREVENT WASTE
Focus on prevention of plastic packaging waste by minimising single use packaging and promoting packaging reuse where possible.
2. SUPPORT CIRCULAR ECONOMY
Support Ireland to deliver the Circular Economy Package plastic recycling targets of 50% of all plastics by 2025 and 55% of all plastic packaging by 2030, as set by the European Commission.
3. SIMPLIFY POLYMERS
Reduce complexity within the plastic packaging supply chain by simplifying polymer usage and eliminating non-recyclable components in all plastic packaging by 2030.
4. USE RECYCLED
Help build a Circular Economy for used plastic packaging by increasing the use of plastic packaging with a recycled content.
5. AVOID FOOD WASTE
Ensure the reductions in use of plastic packaging do not jeopardise our opportunities to achieve Ireland’s goal of a 50% reduction in food waste by 2030 as set out in Ireland’s food waste charter. Plastic plays a role in preserving a large number of food products.
The Plastic Pledge awards criteria challenged signatories of the Pledge to demonstrate results in each of the core commitments. Mannok successfully showed significant achievements to achieve the Silver award, including the move to producing only fully recyclable plastic packaging, the removal of 1,000 tonnes of non-recyclable or difficult to recycle plastics from market, the use of circa 1 billion recycled PET bottles within their operations, and the diversion of 500 tonnes of black plastic packaging from landfill, and all in the space of a year.
Mark McKenna, General Manager of Mannok’s packaging operations, said of this latest award,
“For us, this is a particularly significant achievement. We are serious about our responsibility as plastic packaging producers to ensure everything we do is done in the most sustainable way and to make a significant contribution to the wider community to reduce plastic waste responsibly. The Plastic Pledge we have committed to gives us a comprehensive framework to achieving this and helps us benchmark our progress.
The calibre of the awards entrants shows that we as a company are up there with the very best when it comes to delivering on our sustainability commitments. To achieve a silver award in what is widely recognised as one of the most prestigious awards in the country relating to environmental achievements amongst such a field is fantastic recognition of our work in this area. We’re incredibly proud.”
