Brazilian boost for laundry sustainability

Brazilian companies Braskem and GPA have pledged to use sixty tonnes of recycled plastic each year to make packaging for Qualitá stain remover.

Braskem, the largest producer of thermoplastic resins in the Americas, and the GPA Group, Brazil's largest retail chain, will be recycling 60 tonnes of plastic every year to produce the new packaging of the Qualitá stain remover, a brand sold at GPA’s Pão de Açúcar stores across Brazil.

The plan will use plastic from supermarkets, sent to recycling cooperatives.

After that the plastic is sent to a recycling company, which manufactures resin made of 70 per cent recycled material and 30 per cent virgin polyethylene.

The resin is sold to a plastic processor, which makes the laundry powder packs and fills them.

Brazil’s entire stock of Qualitá stain remover - roughly 10,000 pots per month - will have packaging made from the recycled resin.

Américo Bartilotti, Polyethylene Director at Braskem, said: “The partnership is the achievement of our goal of developing, in partnership with the chain, customised solutions for recycling and new applications of post-consumer plastic.”

Laura Pires, Sustainability Director at GPA, said: "GPA has always been a pioneer in initiatives related to retail sustainability. With this partnership with Braskem, we are taking an even greater step in this field, joining all the points of the production chain to the lifecycle of consumption. We are also, of course, engaging our consumers to take on this responsibility alongside us and generating income and work opportunities for the local community.”