Constantia Flexibles officially unveiled its new plant, Constantia Ecoflex Ahmedabad, at a festive opening ceremony on November 20, 2019. Over 300 guests, including, the Austrian ambassador to India, Brigitte Öppinger-Walchshofe, and RS Sodhi, managing director of Amul industries and expert in the field of sustainability, as well as selected media representatives, attended the grand opening to celebrate this flexible packaging milestone.

“With Constantia Ecoflex Ahmedabad, we are making a big step towards more sustainable packaging. This is not only a great progress in terms of sustainability for Constantia Flexibles but also the entire packaging industry. Together we can go into a greener future,” says Alexander Baumgartner, CEO of Constantia Flexibles.

Following the official part of the opening, including speeches and the ribbon-cutting, guests and media representatives attended a guided tour through the new plant. They had the possibility to take a look at the state-of-the art technology that produces the packaging solution EcoLam by Constantia Flexibles.Ecolam is high barrier flexible packaging that combines the resource-efficiency of plastic with recyclability back into new packaging films, says Achim Grefenstein, SVP Group R&D, who drew the development of the EcoLam development in close collaboration with the Indian team.

EcoLam is a lightweight Mono-PE laminate suitable for a great variety of packaging applications and is part of Constantia Flexibles’ product line Ecolutions. Due to its mono-material structure, EcoLam is fully recyclable, and its carbon footprint is approximately 32% lower than that of comparable products. It comes in different barrier grades to deliver the needs for a wide range of products.

After the tour, Pavan Parikh, managing director and vice president of Constantia Ecoflex Ahmedabad, part of Constantia Flexibles, pointed out, “Innovation is not a dispensable luxury but simply a necessity.”

The Ecoflex plant opened after more than two years of intensive preparations. Test runs started in September 2019. It has an area of 24,500 square meters and currently employs 50 people. The number is expected to triple by the second quarter of 2020. Even though Constantia Ecoflex Ahmedabad is located in India, the plant will supply customers worldwide.

As the European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy stipulates that all plastic must be recyclable by 2030, with the products coming from Constantia Ecoflex Ahmedabad, Constantia Flexibles will help the industry fulfill the legal requirements and at the same time create products that appeal to the growing number of consumers who care about sustainability, the company says.