Earth Day at Tek Pak: Shaping A More Sustainable Future

The thermoforming industry, responsible for everything ranging from food packaging, small electronics shields, and even medical trays, has been critically examining its environmental impact. As experts in the thermoforming industry, Tek Pak, Inc. is committed to an ambitious goal of becoming carbon-neutral by 2033.

To achieve this goal, the Tek Pak Sustainability Committee was formed at the beginning of 2023. With weekly meetings in place to push forward the sustainability agenda, the Committee's dedication to their cause is undeniable. Heading up the Tek Pak Sustainability Committee is Scott Carter, Vice President of Innovation & Sustainability. Regarding current initiatives for the Tek Pak Sustainability Committee …"Tek Pak is committed to becoming the sustainability leader in the thermoforming industry. There is no time to spare in slowing global warming and eliminating the leakage of plastic into the environment, so we have set an ambitious target for ourselves: to become carbon neutral by 2033. To get there, we are acting now to promote a circular economy for plastic packaging by recycling all our post-industrial plastic scrap and increasing post-consumer recycle content in our products and throughout our supply chain. We are working to become ISO 14000 registered by Q1 of 2025. All employees participate in programs to reduce landfill, water, and energy use. We are now measuring our sustainability results and will be reporting on them annually," said Carter.

Tek Pak Sustainability has also been working very diligently with their staff to try and recycle more efficiently and effectively. A new initiative, called the Tek Pak Flexible Plastics Recycling program is helping to reduce the amount of flexible plastics going to the landfill by turning them into feedstock for composite decking. The flexible plastics tend to contaminate and clog up the normal recycling stream, making traditional recycling efforts more difficult. The Tek Pak Flexible Plastics Recycling program not only helps reduce the landfill issue but also, creates an environmentally-conscious decking solution that benefits the community.

In 2023, Tek Pak began another Sustainability initiative, welcoming and participating in an audit through the University of Illinois Chicago’s Department of Energy's Industrial Assessment Center (IAC) program. When the results were issued, and recommendations were outlined, Tek Pak wasted no time taking action. Tek Pak will be implementing all the IAC improvement recommendations:

• Replacing all existing lighting with LED equivalent.
• Installing Variable Frequency Drives (VFD) for their chiller pump motors to fix any remaining compressed air leaks.
• Installing photovoltaic systems in the future.

Tek Pak has a long history of recycling its industrial plastic scrap. By partnering with a local plastics recycler, Tek Pak provides all of the trim and set-up scrap from the production of their carrier tape product for re-pelletizing. These pellets can then be re-extruded to create material for new packaging.

This is just the beginning of Tek Pak's commitment to its ambitious goal of being carbon-neutral by 2033. With many other Sustainability initiatives well underway, Tek Pak plans to continue to find new and innovative ways to up their Sustainability game.

Our commitment to our clients is to provide them with high-quality and innovative thermoforming solutions, and we would love to discuss your packaging needs. To get started, you can visit our contact page, give us a call, or request a quote.