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Company Background / History

Who We Are

Karton S.p.A. is a leading producer of polypropylene corrugated and solid sheets.
We have more than 50 years expertise in packaging. The company, founded by the Bressan family in 1967, has managed in creating a structure which perfectly combines the advantages of the mid-size enterprise with the technological culture and the know-how of a large company.
With the extrusion and injection plants both conveniently located in North-East of Italy, Karton S.p.A. has an easy and direct approach to the European market.
The key feature is a lean production, paired with an efficient and constantly evolving manufacturing technology.

Karton recently acquired Gekoplast S.A. a dynamic young company specialized in the production of polypropylene sheets for the automotive and white goods sectors.This acquisition together with recent investments in the Italian plants is part of our strategy to satisfy the growing demand for polypropylene sheets in Europe.

Quality has always been the inspiring principle in Karton’s activities. Awarded with ISO 9001, ISO 22000, ISO 14001, the company officially committed into guaranteeing its customers  the highest standards in terms of quality and food safety, whilst producing environmentally friendly.

In Karton we have more than 40 years of experience in the design and development of environmentally friendly extruded and injection moulded products. We have a wide portfolio that satisfies the “cradle to cradle” model approach: polypropylene layer pads and pallets, as well as reusable boxes and bulk containers like our Box Pallets and Box Mec.

What do all these products have in common? They are durable and robust, they can be used over and over again instead of being landfilled. At the end of their useful life they can be recycled into new products.

The recyclate we collect from our customers through a buy-back programme becomes a cost-efficient raw material for making new products.

Our customers, instead of incurring in disposal costs of the exhausted products, receive an economic value from us. A win-win situation.

The use of polypropylene (PP) ensures the total recyclability at the end of a product’s useful  life.

Our Business

Karton S.p.A. is a leading producer of polypropylene corrugated and solid sheets.
The polypropylene sheets allow to create a very wide range of product applications: layer pads for beverage and glass industries (for this sector, Karton S.p.A. is the European leader),  building and construction, returnable packaging for automotive industries; packaging for pharmaceutical and food industries, displays for advertising and visual communication, as well as high quality plastic pallets and collapsible box pallets.
Our strength is service to customers: a flexible production capacity, ability to satisfy urgent customer requests, innovation, quality and reliability.
Our best application and expertise are corrugated and solid polypropylene divider sheets for beverage and glass industries.

 

Our Core Business: Layer pads for the Glass Industry

Polypropylene layer pads: what are they?

Plastic divider sheets, or layer pads, have been introduced in the market in the early eighties.

Traditionally layer pads were made of masonite, wood or cardboard.
Those traditional materials however, did not perform very well on bottling automated systems. 
Plastic sheet dividers are instead highly functional: they brilliantly solved issues such as glass or cans breakage, tearing and chipping, machine-jams, etc.
For this plus, they spread out fast in the beverage industry starting from the eighties.
One of the first bottler who switched from cardboard to polypropylene sheet dividers  has been Birra Peroni, a well-known Italian beer producer.
The product itself improved over the time to solve hygiene issues as well: layer pads industrial cleaning machines were created, as well as the layer pads sealed edges.
In 1987 the first worldwide buyer is a Dutch well-known beer brewer: some of our layer pads used by this brewer in the late eighties are still circulating nowadays!

 

Why do we make layer pads in polypropylene?

Polypropylene (PP) is a very versatile material.
Polypropylene has several advantages compared to materials like cardboard or wood:

• High resistance to impacts, to chemicals, greases and mould;
• Does not change with water contact or humidity
• Lightweight: helps cutting transport costs;
• Hygienic: safe to transport pharmaceuticals as well as foodstuffs;
• It can be recycled: Karton recycles  the exhausted  PP products into its own plant, creating new products!

Polypropylene Layer Pads are Recyclable!

Environment protection has always been one of the inspiring principle of our company. That is why the first recycling facility is operating since 1978.
Karton is equipped with recycling machines in order to reuse production scraps, as well as discarded layer pads.
Karton established a buy-back program of discarded layer pads.
In 1990 an internal laboratory has been set up to assure product safety and quality. Since 2002 the Company has been awarded with ISO 9001.
Traceability is guaranteed as well: batch number can be printed on each layerpad.

What are the results we deliver with our polypropylene layer pads?

• We protect the environment, recycling the layer pads, which do not end up in landfills;
• We lower the costs of our partners: we buy back the layer pads at the end of their useful life;
• We offer a logistic service to collect free of charge PP layer pads at the end of their useful life directly at our customer facilities all over Europe;
• Ultimately, we increase the number of players (companies) who benefit from Circular Economy!
• European glass and cans makers are relieved from taking care of disposal costs of  layer pads, Karton buys the used ones back
• Karton allows partner companies to generate revenue from “waste”
• Karton implements a ‘CRADLE TO CRADLE APPROACH’: we recycle the layer pads into our plants and turn them into new products!

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