Reducing production related waste

We at Nolato are constantly working to cut our carbon emissions. In regards to our production facilities, this is done by making the right decisions regarding energy sources, production efficiency and waste management.

Green energy use

From a sustainability perspective, even though energy efficiency is important, it is even more important that the energy being used comes from an environmentally friendly and renewable source. With this in mind, we at Nolato aim to use fossil-free energy in all production facilities located in areas where it is possible. When we acquired our Polish subsidiary, Nolato Stargard, the first thing we did was to phase out the company’s coal-based energy source to an alternative with lower carbon footprint.

Visualization and simulation software

When it comes to waste, the ultimate goal would, of course, be to not have any waste at all. With the use of visualization and simulation software, we are able to skip the physical prototyping phase and go straight to producing a pilot product. Read more here. An important sustainability aspect is that we need to produce flawless products right from the start in order to minimize unnecessary waste.

Setting up new requirements

Another big contributing factor to waste creation is the variations and imperfections that naturally appear as a result of the production technique in combination with the high requirements that B2C companies put on the finish of plastic parts. These high requirements on finish persist even for parts that are never or rarely visible for the end-user. Our hope is that we, together with our customers, can set up new requirements for the finish that correlate better to end-users’ experiences and exposure to the parts in order to reduce unnecessary plastic waste. This is especially important in the case of big complex parts that are hard to recycle.

The importance of recycling

With a combination of a low amount of scrap, a high Operational Equipment Effectiveness, and high delivery precision, we have come a long way. Since a certain amount of waste is unavoidable, it is important that it is recycled in an optimal way. Recycling waste is an important step towards fully sustainable production. In most cases, we collect our waste and sell it to recycling companies that degranulate the plastic. Selling the plastic to a company that specializes in recycling and then buying the plastic back has proven to be more environmental-friendly and cost-efficient than doing the recycling ourselves on-site.

Read more about how we at Nolato use recycled plastic in the products that we produce here.