The team at Saint-Gobain Abrasives Italy have launched an initiative to improve sustainability across their supply chain, focusing primarily on plastic reduction.

Adopting the 3R principle; reduce, reuse and recycle, the team at the Corsico plant shared ideas to challenge and improve current practices and discuss advances in new, more sustainable methods of packing and transporting products. An opportunity was identified in the use of shrink hood film used to protect grinding wheels and boxes from dust and moisture.  

Shrink hood film is traditionally a thick, strong plastic, designed not only to protect, but to secure wheels to their pallets when in transit. With more sustainable types of film now available, the plant switched to a product made with 30% recycled content and 30% reduced thickness.

As a result, consumption of plastic has reduced by 3,6 tonnes, from 7 to 4,9 tonnes, further contributing to Saint-Gobain’s wider target of becoming carbon neutral by 2050.