{"id":2176,"date":"2021-03-17T12:12:17","date_gmt":"2021-03-17T10:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/neogroup.eu\/enneo-group-started-to-produce-pet-resins-with-25-recycled-secondary-raw-materialsltneo-group-pradejo-gaminti-pet-granules-su-25-perdirbtos-zaliavos\/"},"modified":"2022-02-17T17:08:42","modified_gmt":"2022-02-17T15:08:42","slug":"enneo-group-started-to-produce-pet-resins-with-25-recycled-secondary-raw-materialsltneo-group-pradejo-gaminti-pet-granules-su-25-perdirbtos-zaliavos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neogroup.eu\/it\/enneo-group-started-to-produce-pet-resins-with-25-recycled-secondary-raw-materialsltneo-group-pradejo-gaminti-pet-granules-su-25-perdirbtos-zaliavos\/","title":{"rendered":"NEO GROUP started to produce PET resins with 25% recycled secondary raw materials"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>At the beginning of this year, UAB NEO GROUP, a PET producer operating in Klaip\u0117da FEZ, produced and sent to customers for testing the first PET resins, which were manufactured using up to 25% of recycled raw materials. The company predicts that the commercial application \u2013 PET packaging \u2013 of this fully circular product will be presented to the market by converters in early May. In the next 3-5 years, NEO GROUP plans that recycled PET will account for 25-30% of the total production.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>From the very beginning of NEO GROUP\u2019s operations, only fossil raw materials have been used for the production of PET resins. However, by monitoring the market trends and preparing for the EU directive that will come into force in 2025, back in 2019, the company started experimental research in the laboratory by using the secondary, i.e. recycled PET (rPET) in the production process. After a year of trials, in 2020, on one production line NEO GROUP successfully produced food-contact PET resins with 15% of rPET, which in terms of quality and technical parameters were in the same high level as the primary raw material. And this year \u2013 PET resins with 25% rPET.<\/p>\n<p>Ruslanas Radajevas, CEO of NEO GROUP, comments that this achievement is important for the company for several reasons: the company contributes to sustainability and environmental goals, enables its customers to prepare in advance for coming future requirements, allows its customers to use more sustainable raw materials without changing existing equipment, and most encouraging point &#8211;\u00a0 the technology for using rPET in production was not purchased, but 100% developed by our team \u2013 Klaip\u0117da engineers, technologists, and scientists. Therefore, NEO GROUP did not purchase the patent rights but is currently patenting its own developed process technology in the EU itself.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cBack in 2011 we installed a technology that allows the by-products of PET production process to be chemically recycled into polyester polyols, which are widely used in the construction industry. This experience and <em>know-how<\/em> have helped us a lot over the past few years in the development of the technology for using rPET in our PET resin production process: our technologists have adopted a market-unique way to dissolve, purify and use secondary rPET material in our production lines. We plan to start commercial delivery of our new product, trademark NEOPET CYCLE, in May,\u201d says Ruslanas Radajevas.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>According to him, it is planned to start the production of PET resins with 25-30% of rPET on the other two production lines in 2023-2025, depending on the availability of secondary raw materials and customer demand increase: the major European beverage producers are currently preparing for the EU directive that will enter into force in 2025, but some producers will only start their preparations in 2023 or even 2024.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cThe information about our customers, who are testing the new product, is confidential, but are glad that the first commercial production with our raw materials will be started by a member of our group, the manufacturer of PET preforms, UAB RETAL Lithuania. Therefore, we can be proud that the exclusive PET resins created and manufactured in Lithuania will be used in the production of PET preforms by a company operating in Lithuania and only then they will enter other markets,\u201d says the head of NEO GROUP.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>According to Ruslanas Radajevas, the current technology of the company with additional investments in equipment gives the opportunity to reach up to 50% of the secondary raw materials \u2013 the NEO GROUP team is further developing this direction, especially, having in mind that the EU will require a 30% of rPET content in beverage packaging starting from 2030. However, according to NEO GROUP, the shortage of secondary raw materials in the EU market remains a challenge, which makes it necessary to further strengthen the ecosystem for the collection of post-consumer packaging and society education.<\/p>\n<p>Minister of the Environment, Simonas Gentvilas, congratulates NEO GROUP for the achievement. According to him, this is a great example of the Lithuanian industry, when real leadership of the green course is taken and innovations in the use of secondary raw materials are created much earlier than it is required by the EU.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cThis involvement of secondary raw materials into the production process will undoubtedly give NEO GROUP a unique competitive advantage in the market. A well-functioning Lithuanian deposit system enables clean secondary raw materials to be returned for the second life, and we expect industrial investments into such bold and early solutions only having sufficient quantities of well-sorted waste. Everyone can contribute to this change, therefore the Ministry of Environment is planning significant changes in the organization of the secondary raw materials and packaging system this year,\u201d says Simonas Gentvilas.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>According to Art\u016bras Razbadauskas, Rector of Klaip\u0117da University, the achievement of NEO GROUP sends a strong signal to the city\u2019s academic community regarding the practical opportunities of developing the green economy direction. According to him, NEO GROUP has proved that innovations and research in the fields of sustainable technologies, material recycling, organic chemistry, and related areas have enormous commercial potential, can solve global problems, and glorify Lithuania as a leader in this field.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cWe are glad to know that this meaningful innovation was born in Klaip\u0117da, and NEO GROUP does not buy foreign patents and inventions, but patents the ideas, created by bright Lithuanian minds. Additionally, the achievement of NEO GROUP is being developed in the priority area of \u200b\u200bthe circular economy supported by the EU. This is a signal to further strengthen the academic community and various partnerships with entrepreneurship in this field,\u201d says prof. dr. Art\u016bras Razbadauskas.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<hr \/>\n<p>NEO GROUP is a part of the international group RETAL Industries Ltd., which operates across 10 countries and manages 17 factories. In Lithuania, RETAL Industries Ltd. also manages the PET preforms producer UAB RETAL Lithuania and the food films and cap producer UAB RETAL Baltic Films. Anatoly Martynov, a Cyprus citizen, is the president and main shareholder of the RETAL Group.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>NEO GROUP is one of the largest producers of polyethene terephthalate (PET) resin in Europe, located near the Klaip\u0117da. It started its activities in Lithuania in 2004 and still is the largest greenfield investment in Lithuania. Currently, the factory produces over 450 thousand tonnes of PET resins annually, corresponding to 14% of the total European production of PET resins for food and beverage packaging.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Further information:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>R\u016bta \u017dilien\u0117<\/p>\n<p>Human Resources and Communications Director<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"mailto:ruta.ziliene@neogroup.eu\">ruta.ziliene@neogroup.eu<\/a><\/p>\n<p>+370 611 13306<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At the beginning of this year, UAB NEO GROUP, a PET producer operating in Klaip\u0117da FEZ, produced and sent to customers for testing the first PET resins, which were manufactured using up to 25% of recycled raw materials. The company predicts that the commercial application \u2013 PET packaging \u2013 of this fully circular product will [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized-it"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neogroup.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neogroup.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neogroup.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neogroup.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neogroup.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/neogroup.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neogroup.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neogroup.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neogroup.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neogroup.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}