Papirus and RaiaDrogasil join forces in circular Economy Project

2023-06-20

The cardboard paper manufacturer Papirus and the pharmacy chain RaiaDrogasil have teamed up to carry out, in partnership, a circular economy project, involving several stakeholders, with the participation of Cheiro Verde Ambiental and cleantech Polen. The initiative is aimed at one of RaiaDrogasil’s own brands, Natz, a line of natural products that has sustainability as its premise, and provides for the collection of packaging used to manufacture the new paper packaging of its products.

“This project brought together Papirus and RaiaDrogasil, both very concerned with sustainability, with the aim of increasing the Sustainability Indices of the Natz brand, within a complete process of circularity,” says Christian Króes, product and Technical Assistance Manager at Papirus.

The project has as its starting point the collection of packaging used in pharmacies of the drug Raia and Drogasil, within its conscious disposal program, and provides that the packaging discarded by consumers will be used by Papirus to manufacture the cardboard of the New Natz packaging, in line with the Papirus Circular program. This process will be tracked and recorded to its full extent, in order to subsequently generate recycling credits, within the initiative that Papirus develops in partnership with cleantech Polen.

The waste discarded in pharmacies will be directed to the company Cheiro Verde Ambiental, specialized in the environmentally correct disposal of this material, and it will separate all the waste – that is, the boxes and package inserts – and sell them with Papirus, so that they serve as raw materials in the manufacture of new packaging papers, especially Vitacarta, which will be used in the Natz line. This paper is made from 100% recycled material, of which 30% is post-consumer waste.

“RaiaDrogasil’s conscious disposal program has drug disposal points, packaging and package inserts in all chain stores. And from this project, it gained an even greater extension, closing the entire cycle of the circular economy. It is important that consumers know that their engagement is fundamental, because without our customers this project would not exist”, says Renata Mascarenhas, director of Private Brands at RaiaDrogasil.

Cleantech Polen, which provides services to Papirus, will track 100% of the invoices for incoming post-consumer material in an integrated system; it will bring real-time data on the post-consumer raw material from Cheiro Verde Ambiental and will make available on the landing page the entire history of the packaging, demonstrating the origin of the waste that was recycled and transformed into raw material, and that goes on to compose the Natz line packaging.

” We add social, environmental and economic values to the packaging, contributing to the collection activity, waste sorting and continuity of the material cycle”, says Amando Varella, Co-CEO and commercial and Marketing Director of Papirus.