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CIRCULAR ECONOMY
As an innovative supplier of specialty polyesters solutions, Selenis is dedicated to providing solutions to the challenges our planet faces. Our long history in the polymers industry feeds our know-how and experience to achieve sustainability in both the solutions we offer to our customers as well as in our own operations.
Selenis’ goal is to provide sustainable solutions that support the advancement of a circular economy and considerably reduce plastic waste. We are devoted to playing our role in society’s collective response to the challenges we face, by jointly working across the value chain to create tangible solutions.
Selenis focuses on developing products that meet sustainable standards in recyclability, eco- resource efficiency and eco-friendly compositions (alternatives to conventional materials such as BPA and styrene). For this reason, Selenis has focused on a circular economy for PET since our foundation. It’s in our DNA.
Selenis resins incorporate up to 50% recycled content and target 100% recyclability.
At Selenis we believe in science. To us, investments in R&D are a priority and our technology focuses on delivering solutions that close the loop.
PET has an established, accessible end-of-life option – recycling. To Selenis, recycling PET is a lot more than keeping PET bottles out of landfills. To Selenis, recycling PET is about creating a valuable manufacturing feedstock that can be reprocessed and used as a raw material in the production of specialty copolyesters. This is why launched our ECO Series, supplying a sustainable version of all our product portfolio that include up to 50% post-consumer recycled content. Selenis ECO resins enable brand owners to:
Selenis Eco Resins contain recycled PET certified by Recyclass:
Incorporating post-consumer recycled content into the production of new raw materials greatly reduces carbon emissions and greenhouse gas, as well as requiring less energy overall to manufacture the new product.
At Selenis we bring positive end-of-life solutions for PET materials that might otherwise be discarded in landfills. Through our recycling process, polyester-based products are reduced to their polymer building blocks – called monomers. They are then reintroduced to the value chain as recycled polyester raw materials, delivering a true circular solution.
Removal of solid contaminants during transfer of the monomer between the esterfier and the polymer autoclave with higher efficiency than mechanical recycling due to low melt viscosity of the monomer.
During the polycondensation process, that takes place in the polymer autoclave. In the course of the melt phase, the batch is submitted to a high vacuum level, below 1 mbar, for a significant period of time.
Final products have better overall properties when compared to mechanical recycling and no thermal history.
The Selenis process recovers monomers through molecular recycling. Glycolysis is used to break-up PET waste and reduce it to its polymer building blocks—called monomers. Next, they are reintroduced to the value chain as recycled polyester raw materials.
What is unique about Selenis breaking-through technology is that we combine the recycled PET with virgin raw material at specific dosages, according to production throughput and desired percentage of recycled content, resulting in the production of new polyesters with high levels of PCR.
Through the mechanical recycling process of the recycling unit of our sister-company Renascis, we convert waste material into “new” raw material, without changing the basic structure. At Selenis we then convert the PET flake into new polymers through molecular recycling.
Renascis, recovers a volume of bottle bales equivalent to more than 50% of post-consumer PET bottles of the Portuguese waste stream.
At our Industrial Site in Portugal, Selenis, Renascis and Evertis (sister-company), are vertically integrated. As an integrated recycler, specialty polyester and multilayer barrier film producer, we have created synergies that translate into a lower carbon footprint thanks to the reduction of raw materials transportation costs.
Our recycling plant, Renascis, is RecyClass Recycling Process certified, demonstrating the quality of our processes and transparently communicating the origin of waste.
Recyclass certifications are the seal of approval that our products are a fit for circularity and compliance.
Benefits of the certification
The Audit Scheme requirements are aligned with those of EN 15343:2007 and ISO 22095:2020 standards.
Selenis has been certified by PRS for our efforts to accelerate a circular economy in our supply chain.
The PRS Green Label emphasizes our joint responsibility and recognizes our company’s efforts in actively contributing to this long standing truly circular model.
Through our partnership with PRS, Selenis provides sustainably sourced pallets that are either FSC or PEFC certified. At Selenis, we control the re-use and shared use of CP-type pallets, both internally and with our clients, by tracking and recollecting pallets for their reuse.
Selenis is fully committed to a circular economy. We were pioneers in the inclusion of recycled content in our films, with our own recycling unit as of 2002, and increased the recyclability of our products, through a partnership for tray-to-tray recycling since 2019.
At Selenis we directly contribute to a circular economy as well as reducing our environmental footprint:
Do you want to explore further what we do to reduce our environmental footprint? Learn more in environment
At our Recycling Unit we efficiently recycled 10K tonnes of post-consumer PET equivalent to:
Associations are increasingly becoming a vital element for creating solutions that close the loop. Selenis believes in close engagement with organisations who share the same commitment to create initiatives for a circular economy. Either directly or through our sister-company Evertis, our group is a member of the following Foundations and Associations:
Selenis is a member of the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR). Through this alliance we enhance plastic recycling by improving quality and increasing supply through technical resources, testing programs, design solutions, corporate training, regulatory leadership and educational programs.
PIEP (Innovation in Polymer Engineering) is an important partnership to Selenis. Through 20 years of experience they have expanded their expertise and equipment which we’ve used to gain deeper knowledge on the properties of our resins. Namely, through the collaboration between experts from Selenis and PIEP we developed the “Processing Guidelines” of our products. These documents are a crucial tool for our clients, as they provide detailed instructions on how to process Selenis products.
Strengthen the competitiveness of the plastics and molds industry, through the development of proprietary technologies and the conception of innovative products.
Promote a culture and an effective practice of R&D practices.
Show the national endogenous capacity to respond, in useful time, to specific innovation challenges.
Through our sister company Evertis, we participate in various Working Groups with the objective of listening to a variety of perspectives, sharing experience and knowledge, brainstorming for generation of ideas and achieving a supportive collaboration. Selenis specifically contributes to the working groups that focus on:
Recycling PET thermoforms - Tray to Tray
PET monomer recycling special industry group
Working Group on opaque and functional bottles
Evertis is part of a communication taskforce that is working on a future communications campaign with the main objective that PET remains the material of choice for packaging. Additionally, we have financially contributed to the campaign, together with several other members of Petcore Europe.
Through our sister company Evertis, we participate in several Working Groups that promote and support activities that contribute to a circular economy. Additionally, we influence EPRs to promote a tray-to-tray recycling stream.
Founded by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the Plastics Pact is a network of global initiatives that gather all strategic stakeholders, at national or regional level, to implement solutions towards a circular economy for plastics. The pacts are based on the idea of a common vision for plastics that will accelerate the transition to a closed loop economy for plastics, referred to as a New Plastics Economy.
Through our sister company Evertis, our group is a founding member of the Portuguese, U.S. and Mexico Plastics Pact. Each initiative is led by a local organisation and unites governments, businesses, and citizens behind the common vision with a concrete set of ambitious local targets.
Our group founded the European Plastics Pact, which aims to accelerate the shift towards the reuse and recycling of single-use plastic products and packaging.
Our group contributed to the creation of the EPP Roadmap, aligned with existing European initiatives such as the UN Global Partnership on Marine Litter, the Basel Convention, the national Plastics Pacts, the global commitment from Ellen MacArthur foundation and the European Commission’s Circular Plastic Alliance.
Additionally, our group participates in several working groups in order to:
COOPERATE across the value chain on a European scale to boost the development of smarter techniques and approaches, and cement an innovative community;
HARMONIZE guidelines, standards and national supporting frameworks. Countries will take on current legal barriers, creating a level playing field and building scale;
CONNECT to share their best practices and lessons learned across Europe in meetings, annual progress reports and on the website, in order to accelerate the shift to circularity by default.
Through our sister company Evertis, our Group is a signatory member of the Circular Plastics Alliance, which, supported by the European Commission, endorses the ambitious target that by 2025 at least 10 million tons of recycled plastics should find their way into products and packaging in Europe each year.
Selenis, through our sister company Evertis, joined ANIPAC, the Mexican National Association of the Plastic Industry, present throughout the supply chain for over 60 years. Their goal is to promote the competitiveness and sustainability of the plastics industry, in harmony with the environment and the community. ANIPAC carries out actions supported by ethics and dialogues, as well as specialized services to its associates.Selenis contributes through participating in working groups focused on integral development of the productive chain of the plastics industry.
Selenis participates in the LIFE POLITEX project, aimed to address the significant problems of textile waste generation and accumulation in landfills or incineration, driven by the fast fashion industry.
LIFE POLITEX represents a pioneering effort to become the first industrial pilot plant for comprehensive fibre-to-fibre recycling technology. This initiative seeks to demonstrate complete closed circularity of polyester within the textile sector, transforming processed textile waste into new polyester fibres in a single industrial process.
Through our sister company Evertis, we joined ABIPLAST, the Brazilian Plastic Industry Association, that has supported for more than five decades, the plastic transformation and recycling industries. We participate in industry workshops, seminars and trade shows, as well as counting on the association’s support and monitorization of our commitment to the Operation Clean Sweep.
Explore more, about our partnerships.
Selenis believes the benefits of PET are often under-rated and misjudged. In a world where citizens and consumers are constantly bombarded by information, there is confusion around PET and its role. This has led us to take a role in sensitizing our communities through educational programs developed by our team, as well as through contributions to communication campaigns such as Positively PET and Recycle the one.
Selenis commits to communicating credible, evidence-based and solutions-oriented information on PET and recycling. By giving consumers clearer information, we can educate them on the purpose and benefits of PET packaging and how and what can be recycled.
We are proud of our Eco-bricks partnership with Sol Pacífico Foundation, an excellent initiative to promote sustainability and reduce plastic waste. Recycling awareness for kids is essential to build a more sustainable future and create a generation of environmentally conscious individuals. By teaching them about recycling, we can empower them to take action and make a positive impact on the environment.
PET has unique and versatile characteristics that no other material can match.
At Selenis we do our part in passing the message:
