Brands turn post-consumer sachets into sporting goods

In addition to encouraging the practice of sports, the initiative benefited recyclable material pickers and an NGO in the south of the country.

NESCAU, with the help of Boomera, transformed sachet packaging of its products into circular sports items such as soccer goals, basketball hoops and volleyball posts.

The project that combines innovation and sustainability and supported by the umbrella of Nestlé’s RE initiative, which proposes to rethink all of the company’s operations, reinforces the importance of product circularity.

For this, it sought a partnership with Boomera, a Brazilian Circular Economy company that combines science with awareness to transform waste into recycled raw material, to transform flexible packaging into sports items after developing a PCR (post-consumer resin) for the execution from the project. The products were donated to the NGO Bairro Da Juventude, located in Criciúma, in the state of Santa Catarina.

Among the beneficiaries are also the recyclable material collectors from the cooperatives approved by Boomera involved in the project, which were essential for two tons of flexible materials to stop going to the landfill and gain a new life. With this, the cooperatives managed to improve their income from the sale of these residues to carry out the project.

“With this action, we seek to complete the cycle of circularity, transforming some of our packaging into new products and also contributing to such an important work that is the recycling of materials. The project had an important environmental impact, but also a great social impact for the community”, comments Cristiani Vieira, manager of Environmental Sustainability at Nestlé.

The collection of used sachets took five months and involved 10 recycling cooperatives. The process of transforming and developing the resin by Boomera until the end of the production of sports items was carried out in another five months, considering all the tests necessary to guarantee the performance of the products.

For Abner Bezerra, Nestlé’s Nescau and Beverages Marketing Manager, the project is in line with the brand’s objective, “Transforming our packaging into sports products makes the brand continue to invest in and support the practice of sports”. We want to play together with our partners, with society, with children and with families and still take care of the planet”

“Working by uniting science with conscience is generating social and environmental impacts and this project represents that from beginning to end. Boomera has transformed flexible packaging, complex to be recycled, into products with a cause that encourage sports in the community. This project by Boomera and Nescau reflects the purpose of the two brands”, explains Guilherme Brammer, CEO of Boomera.

Boomera has a materials engineering laboratory to develop quality recycled resins and discover new applications for different types of materials, even the most difficult to be recycled. More than 131 thousand tons of plastic waste have already been inserted into its circular chain and the company has two factories with vertical operations to produce recycled raw materials and large-scale circular products.

“We believe that cooperatives play an important role in reverse logistics and waste processing in Brazil, promoting social inclusion and a positive environmental impact. Therefore, we work to increase the resilience of cooperatives by leveraging three main indicators: productive efficiency, average income of workers, in addition to health and safety at work. Boomera uses its own methodology, recognized worldwide for promoting a process of continuous improvement in cooperatives. As a result, we have already developed partnerships with more than 500 cooperatives and benefited more than 8,000 members, uniting science with awareness to put the circular economy into practice and find sustainable solutions for companies that are looking to give their packaging a better destination.” , concludes the executive.

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