HECTOR ALONSO
IESDE School of Management
Gabriela Sánchez Bazán
Keep this story going! Share below!
Generating a high-quality raw material ready to be transformed into clothing, furniture, etc while relieving waste disposal of plastic, and integrating all the steps of the recycling process, from collection to separation and transformation by using the most advanced methods and technologies. This relates to several SDG goals including sustainable cities and communities, life on land, and responsible consumption and production.
The process begins in the collection center were all the PET containers, in partnership with PET Gatherers who are offered a fair price per kilogram and a secure sell all year long, which gives them certainty and guarantees a continuous flux of selected PET. Afterward, the PET Containers are taken to the manufacturing plant, where the containers get selected and classified according to their properties, colors and sizes, next they pass through a pre-wash were the labels are taken off. After all the containers are clean, they are submitted to a high-temperature bath to eliminate the glue residues from the labels. All the containers are then placed in a high-power mill were they are cut into flakes and given the needed size. Later they are tested in the laboratory to verify quality and to assure the proper melting temperature for each type of plastic before they are taken to drying ovens. When humidity is eliminated from the flakes they are ready for the melting process. Later the melted PET is injected and converted into fine filaments, which can be turned into a wide range of textiles.
The inspiration comes from the will of Group Providencia to transform the Mexican textile market along with reducing the production cost of a series of synthetic raw materials used as the main material of their products. On the group's quest for innovation, they came across the huge plastic disposal issue all over México and significantly more serious in the state of Tlaxcala due to an inefficient disposal service, attached to a lack of an organized PET collection chain. Therefore after a great deal of research, tests, and projections of the advantages of producing their own fiber, Morphoplast was born by applying a combination of technologies from China and Europe. It was conceived to fulfill a business necessity but in the process, they discovered that they were creating a much more complex and revolutionary chain of actions on behalf of the planet and the community.
Generating value from plastic waste by integrating specialized collection, selecting and cleaning process along with modern manufacturing methods. Improves not only the business results but also collaborates with the considerable waste disposal issue in México. While the consumer goods sector keeps flooding the planet with plastic packages, companies like Morphoplast have taken the initiative of generating value from that waste, as they reincorporate these resources into a useful good.
By avoiding the traditional polymer chips, which implies the usage and transformation of a huge amount of coal, petroleum, and ethylene, as long with the environmental impact it produces, Morphoplast´s group has achieved substantial savings on its base cost per ton of polymer. ¨Our sustainable practices reflect not only a significant improvement in the Group´s profit rate by reducing our main raw material cost. It also allows us to create synergies with PET gatherers by granting them a secure client and prompt payment¨ said Javier Marroquín, Public Relation Executive for the company.
“The fact that 100% of our raw material is recycled plastic, produces a great advantage that not only benefits us as a company, it also helps the environment, because while we collect our inputs, at the same time we help prevent up to 80 tons of Plastic from staying on the streets piling up or reaching rivers or seas and causing a huge pollution and damage to our environment, so in this way we help to combat this serious problem in a forthright manner” said Javier.
As for the social aspect of the business, Javier tells us that to raise awareness and develop a continuous supply chain that allows the company to meet it´s production goals they had the vision to create an ambitious exchange program with various communities and schools all over México. It consisted of approaching and identifying the needs of the community and the local school, in order to provide them with something in exchange for PET. These articles ranged from furniture, clothing, blankets to even beds and computers. These programs transformed into a developed and constant supply chain that benefits gatherers by securing their income while generating consciousness about the plastic pollution issue among them and how waste separation can be improved in a meaningful way.
Until this year the company was not able to exploit 100 percent of the material they received (labels and caps), but by now they have developed a new line of manhole covers made from labels and caps, which passed all tests and obtained the required certifications.
Get stories of positive business innovations from around the world delivered right to your inbox.
Morphoplast is a manufacturing company founded 11 years ago, dedicated to the transformation of Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) into an affordable and high-quality Textile solid fiber, Circular Hollow Fiber, Round Solid Fiber and Geotextiles, which can be used as raw material for a huge spectrum of textiles manufacturing process, while reducing plastic waste significantly through the integration into the process of collection, separation, and recycling.
