The IMG Group is aware of PET’s important role in various industries that affect our everyday life. Amongst other functionalities, PET has unique and irreplaceable characteristics to protect and package food, directly contributing to reducing food waste and hence delivering a huge positive environmental impact on our environment. The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a light on PET’s crucial role in hygiene and safety in the food and medical industries, proving this material is irreplaceable. Since the IMG Group’s foundation, their main purpose has always been to focus on a circular economy for PET. Their vision focuses on providing innovative and sustainable products, that meet not only human needs but environmental needs as well.
The Portuguese-based group, is steadily advancing on the road to circular economy transition, deploying ambitious programs and investing on the improvement of their products. In order to guarantee their success, the group collaborates and partners with governments, industry associations and local communities, supporting each other in a common commitment of achieving circularity. They believe that through collaboration they will drive change at scale.
The group’s aim is to reduce waste and foster PET recycling not only at their industrial sites, but in all the communities where they operate. They believe in encouraging their local communities to care for the environment by collecting, separating and recycling all materials possible, focusing on the most widely recycled material - PET. By sensitizing society on the benefits gained from recovering materials that would otherwise end up in landfills, the group motivates society to join them in their common goal.
The IMG group has a partnership with the Sol Pacífico Foundation, with whom they have associated in several initiatives linked to recycling and education. In this case, they foster eco-brick construction as a sustainable project. Eco-bricks, made using PET bottles filled with non-recyclable materials, become the building blocks of ecological building structures with the following benefits:
They embarked on this project in the Costa Alegre area of the Mexican Pacific Coast. Although they target the involvement of the whole community, they focus on programs at the local schools, as they believe that the younger generations are the future for a greener planet. Through class-room presentations, the foundation highlights the positive impact that this ecological construction delivers and teaches students how to make their own eco-bricks – something that can then be replicated at home and throughout the community. With this knowledge, a fun and educational activity was created whereby students participated in the construction of benches and other elements for the improvement of their school facilities.
As an additional incentive eco-bricks can be cashed as vouchers to be used in local supermarkets (5 eco bricks = 20 USD). The first collection of Eco-Bricks was a huge success, with the following results:
The first collection of eco-bricks will be used for the construction of bus stops. Two projects have alreadyinitiated, these will use the majority of the eco-bricks from this first pool, and more projects are on the way.
The IMG group is aware that it will take a lot more to solve the plastic waste challenge, but they believe that they can have a positive impact by funding local start-up programs that can become global examples and be replicated elsewhere. They also unveiled that they plan to reproduce this program in other communities where they operate, as well as having part of their sustainability team dedicated to identifying future projects with the highest potential for a global positive impact.
The IMG Group incorporates post-consumer and post-industrial recycled content in both lines of businesses: Selenis – supply of specialty polyester for diverse applications, and Evertis – PET-based films for food and non-food applications.
Evertis counts on a wealth of expertise and know-how in accelerating innovative techniques to incorporate recycled content into their products, as they were pioneers in film extrusion as well as incorporation of recycled materials. Currently their films target an average incorporation of 50% post-consumer and post-industrial recycled content. In 2020, Selenis launched an innovative line of products, known as the ECO Series, pioneering the incorporation of up to 50% of recycled content in their resins. Additionally, through their investments in R&D they have developed fully recyclable solutions for the shrink sleeve and form-fill-seal packaging markets.
The IMG Group shares society’s concerns regarding the impact of waste, and they are committed to improving social well-being throughout the world and preserving the health of the planet. The group envisions a future with increased use of recycled content, greater recyclability of their products and lowest feasible carbon footprint where the group plays a leading role in sensitizing their communities to the benefits of recycling PET and advancing a closed loop economy.
The IMG group has a partnership with the Sol Pacífico Foundation, with whom they have associated in several initiatives linked to recycling and education. In this case, they foster eco-brick construction as a sustainable project. Eco-bricks, made using PET bottles filled with non-recyclable materials, become the building blocks of ecological building structures with the following benefits:
Selenis is a supplier of high quality and innovative specialty polyester solutions for diverse applications. Their mission relies on employing their profound knowledge of polymers, formulations, and processing, in partnership with their clients to develop future-fit solutions and commit to create opportunities. Selenis is a global business with production sites in Portugal, Italy and the USA. Their production facilities have batch and continuous SSP units, permitting the production of a wide range of polymers to meet highly technical markets. Their production configurations provides Selenis the flexibility to produce both amorphous and crystallised products.
Committed to playing a role in society’s collective response to the plastic waste challenge, Selenis creates partnerships across the value chain to create long term solutions. Highly focused on sustainability, Selenis centers their innovation in developing resins with up to 50% recycled content and solutions that are fully recyclable in the PET stream. Their progress in molecular recycling turns waste into the building blocks of their specialty resins, contributing to the fight against climate change. Selenis and their sister company, Evertis, are members of the IMG group, an international business headquartered in Portugal with operations around the world. Our businesses have been pioneers in the polyester industry since 1959.
