Ceramica Catalano is working with Sacmi on our "Sustainable Packaging" project. With the recent delivery of new Gaiotto automatic glazing and finishing lines and an AVB casting cell, Ceramica Catalano has become one of the first Sacmi customers to try out this new method of packaging management.
The pilot project has three main objectives: the reduction of over-packaging (i.e. unnecessary packaging), the use of packaging products with a percentage of recycled material and, finally, the recovery of packaging after shipment to the customer. In particular, Catalano has developed the "maximum circularity" approach by using recycled plastic film to wrap the machines shipped and by making provisions to recover part of the packaging for subsequent reuse.
The 3Rs approach (reduce-reuse-recycle) is the modern global approach to achieving sustainability in the world of packaging. At this preliminary stage, the pilot project has been implemented by Sacmi Sanitaryware and applied to the packaging of the machines and moulds that are shipped daily from its Italian production plants in Imola, Verona and Piacenza to customers all over the world and, in particular, to its Italian customers, many of which, like Ceramica Catalano, are concentrated in the Civita Castellana area.
The success achieved in implementing the new packaging approach with these recent deliveries is just the first step in a wider project that could lead to full traceability of all packaging entering and leaving Sacmi's plants in the future. This would greatly facilitate the operation of the circular approach on a large scale and along the plastic film supply chain, according to internationally recognised standards.
