At Armacell, our commitment to environmental protection is part
and parcel of our corporate philosophy and business strategy.
We measure our success by the added value that our innovative solutions deliver to a diverse range of industries – benefits of societal and ecological significance. Our PET foam solutions made of 100% recycled bottles are the best example of our efforts towards sustainability. This is part of what we do to protect our planet.
We actively contribute to moving towards a sustainable society. To save resources and protect the planet, we firmly believe in collaboration and support valuable initiatives that help creating the society of tomorrow. Be it by donating products, money or time, Armacell values these actions and involves with them.
Plastic Whale
Plastic Whale is the first professional plastic fishing company in the world. A social enterprise with a mission: make the world’s waters plastic-free and create value from plastic waste. Armacell is a proud supplier of this company.
In 2019, distributors met our sales and marketing team during a two-day event in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. All the participants got actively involved in the Plastic Whale movement. They jumped onto boats to clear plastic waste from the city's canals. The harvested PET bottles were sent to a shredding company. The shredded plastic serves as a raw material for our ArmaForm PET products, which are used in the construction of Plastic Whale boats, allowing the social enterprise to fish even more waste.
Discover our 100% recycled PET foam solutions
Solar Autonomous Antartica
Armacell supported this project which targets heading the South Pole in a vehicle made of plastic waste and powered by the sun. The Solar Voyager vehicle was built with our PET material.
Insulation is key. To meet the growing demand for energy while at the same time protecting our planet for future generations, improving the energy efficiency of technical equipment is a prerequisite. The key technology for increasing energy efficiency is insulation. This is the role we want to play.
Our products save energy
Our insulation solutions play a crucial role in protecting equipment against energy losses in millions of applications worldwide.
First steps towards a circular economy
Armacell offers a wide range of environmentally friendly solutions based on 100% recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Until today, more than 1 billion PET bottles have been re-used to produce ArmaForm products. Our green foams made from post-consumer PET are installed, for example, in the rotor blades of wind turbines. Instead of a service life of just weeks, our PET foam cores endure several decades.
The increasing scarcity of resources is one of the greatest challenges of our times. Armacell is conscious about it and acts to address this challenge. To use resources as efficiently as possible, we are always searching for ways to reduce raw material use, energy consumption and waste.
One of the greatest challenges humankind faces is increasing resource scarcity. Measured against a set of KPIs, our environmental performance exhibits a positive trend. To enhance our environmental performance and awareness, we are constantly improving data accuracy and collection consistency.
Water consumption in l
Energy consumption in MJ
CO₂ emissions in kg
Recycled waste in %
Scrap reduction & Waste management
Re-using internal production scrap is commonplace in our industry. Armacell has gone one step further by collaborating with two of the largest European converters for the return of sorted residual material from their operations. Following reprocessing at Armacell’s plant in Thimister-Clermont, Belgium, this material is re-used to limit waste generation along the value chain.
We are recycling more and more of our scrap and intelligent systems are in operation to re-use production waste. At our Thimister plant, for example, we reprocessed 9,353 metric tons of recycled PET material in 2018. In ecological terms that meant over 13 metric tons of CO2 equivalents were saved.
In addition, we launched the Eco-Cycle project in EMEA in 2017. With this system, Armacell is the first manufacturer of elastomeric insulation materials to provide a return service for off-cuts. Both the environment and the trade benefit from the new Armacell Eco-Cycle: surplus insulation materials are collected on the construction site and then picked up on appointment.
Certifications
As part of our efforts to maintain the highest ecological standards, our environmental and energy management systems are subjected to regular auditing by external authorities. As a result, 15 of our plants are environmentally certified to ISO 14001:2015, and the energy management systems at our facilities in Münster and Friesenhofen are certified to ISO 50001:2011.
EU Projects
At Armacell, we are convinced that working in teams with other companies has benefits. This is why we are proud to be a partner in two Horizon 2020 projects.
SWEETWOODS
Can we decrease our dependency on finite fossils fuels? Is there a more sustainable alternative to petroleum as the raw material for foam products? To find answers to these questions Armacell is one of the partners in the EU-funded SWEETWOODS project.
SWEETWOODS has brought together nine bio-innovation oriented partners from all over Europe with the aim of creating added value for lignocellulosic biomass. The value chain starts with enzymatic lignin depolymerisation and the conversion of sugars to produce high-purity wood-derived intermediates, which are then processed into a variety of biofuels and bio-chemicals. Armacell’s researchers are currently developing lignin-based feedstock recipes in the laboratory. The next stage will involve pilot-scale testing, with industrial-scale production as the longer-term goal. What is driving Armacell? The desire for true bio-based feedstock, the replacement of organic flame retardants and potential cost savings.
PlastiCircle
A coffee to go, a handy water bottle, a disposable lunch box container – plastic packaging is everywhere and its recycling is an ever-important topic.
That is why Armacell has become a research partner in the PlastiCircle project for plastic packaging waste chain enhancement. Thanks to our pioneering technology for recycled PET bottles we offer 100% recycled and recyclable PET core foams. Using this expertise, we are looking into new opportunities for post-consumer PET sourcing and its conversion into new full-value products.
The goal is to move away from a linear 'take, make & dispose economy' towards a circular model, based on the principle of reduce, reuse & recycle. End-of-life products are reused as raw materials to extend the product life cycle and close the loop towards a circular economy. PlastiCircle is one of 23 environment and resources projects selected for funding by the European Union.
Associations
Armacell is a member of multiple initiatives and alliances that promote sustainability and the more efficient use of energy in buildings:
