Sustainability is in actions: improvements and challenges from our event in Guatemala

.

Sustainability stopped being a conversation about what might happen. We see that every day there is more willingness to talk about what we are doing, measuring its impact, and preparing for what is to come.

That was one of the central ideas for our eighth edition of our Sustainability Event at Grupo Plastilene, live streamed from Guatemala and dedicated to share our 2026 improvements, trends we see transforming the packaging industry and the challenges that will define the next few years.

For 90 minutes, representatives from Grupo Plastilene, Papelera Internacional, and the Guatemalan Center Foundation for Cleaner Production took on sustainability from several perspectives: innovation, regulations, circular economy, climate change, consumption, and shared responsibility.

Our future packaging is defined today

Monomateriality, recyclability, and postconsuemr recycled plastic (PCR) were some of the protagonists during the conversation.

Luisa Ribero, our Corporate Sustainability Director at Grupo Plastilene, highlighted that the industry moves towards lighter structures, easier to recycle, and with a higher pcr content, whilst the regulatory landscape becomes increasingly demanding.

The challenge is to achieve it without forgetting a packaging’s main function: to protect the product adequately.

Stefano Pacini, Grupo Plastilene’s president, emphasized the need to make decisions based on evidence. Sustainability, he explained, requires scientific evaluation of the impact of each alternative and developing solutions that can be environmentally favorable, and can be implemented technically and economically.

This focus is no longer reflected in developments such as the food interleavers elaborated with monomaterial polyethylene, designed to substitute paper structures with wax which can be difficult to recycle, and in new solutions for aseptic packaging that seek to replace traditional combinations of different materials.

From a linear model to a circular one

One of the most convincing points of the event showed how much an operation can change when circularity goes from a strategy to practice.

In 2018, Grupo Plastilene produced 0 kilograms of PCR. In 2025 this number rose to 3.261.680 kilograms.

Simultaneously, the use of recycled plastic into new packaging went from 3.136.000 kg in 2018 to 4.967.750 kg in 2025.

This improrvement is also visible in Guatemala. In Technofilms, the first tests carried out in 2024 led to approximately 12.000 kg of PCR used every month in 2025 and almost 44.000 kg every month in 2026.

Today the centralamerican market is developing structures with as much as 50% PCR content, which allows the substitution of half of the virgin resins used in these applications.

The next challenge is to take circularity even closer to places where waste is created. For Centralamerica, the hope is to develop a local supply chain that can collect, sort, wash, and transform postconsumer material into new PCR resins, reducing the dependence of the material transported from other countries.

Saying that a packaging is sustainable is not enough

According to how regulatory expectations increase, we must also change the way that we communicate environmental attributes.

During the event we highlighted the importance of having certifications and third party testing that allow us to back up our claims regarding recyclability, recycled content, and carbon footprint.

The conversation has proven increasingly relevant for brands: environmental declarations must be supported by comparable information.

In a market such as Europe and the US, this is already conditioned by the way that certain product attributes can be communicated. For Grupo Plastilene, anticipating these expectations became part of the support that it provides its clients.

Decarbonizing also means working in our supply chain

Reducing emissions was another great topic.

Grupo Plastilene’s decarbonization plan moves in four axis: efficiency within operations, energy management, working alongside suppliers, and progressive substitution of virgin raw materials through the use of PCR.

A data point that allows us to get an idea of the impact of collaborative work: just eight suppliers  associated with the supply chain category make up 80% of the Group’s emissions. That’s why, we have decided to reduce the carbon footprint not only of what we see within our facilities, but the decisions made alongside suppliers, clients, and allies.

382 connections that will also become an action plan

The event ended with 382 people connected at once, the highest number recorded during the broadcast.

This number will have a concrete impact: 383 trees will be planted alongside our ally ECOLOGIC in the Colombian Amazon rainforest, reinforcing our commitment shared before and during the event.

Beyond this initiative, the event ended with a shared idea amongst the participants: no organization can solve environmental problems on their own.

Manufacturers, brands, recyclers, suppliers, consumers, governments, and academia are all part of the same supply chain.

While regulation, technology, and market expectations continue evolving, for Grupo Plastilene our mission is the same: to measure, innovate, work together, and turn commitments into actions.

Because, as we recorded during the end of the event in Guatemala, sustainability is not only words, it is action.

To watch the event and learn about our improvements in the region, click here.