Roca Group presents its action plan to promote circularity

• The Circularity Roadmap of Roca Group proposes to reduce the impact of its activity on scarce natural resources by up to 90% through the implementation of specific measures

 

After a thorough analysis of its materials and processes, Roca Group has launched a comprehensive action plan aimed at addressing the challenges of the circular economy. With the goal of minimizing the environmental impact of its operations under criteria of durability, repairability, or recyclability, the Circularity Roadmap establishes guidelines for product design, selection and use of materials, manufacturing, distribution, and disposal of products at the end of their useful life.

The document gathers a series of proposals that complement the best practices already being implemented in the organization, such as the repurpose of 70% of generated waste or the elimination of polyethylene and polystyrene from packaging interiors to reduce the use of single-use plastics by 90%.

For the elaboration of the Circularity Roadmap, the most representative products and packaging of ten categories were studied, concluding that the application of specific measures in 30% of families and 10% of packaging references could reduce the impact on minerals and scarce fossil resources by up to 90%.

 

Five strategic areas

The Circularity Roadmap groups its proposals into five strategic areas: Eco-design, Materials, Packaging, Waste, and End of Life. An integral approach that takes into account all the stages a product goes through from conception, manufacturing, and installation to recovery, recycling, or disassembly for processing its components.

In the eco-design of new products, the Cradle-to-Cradle concept is being applied, promoting the use of recyclable or biodegradable materials that do not generate waste.

Roca Group prioritizes the use of recycled and certified materials without compromising the quality and durability of its products. In this sense, the aim is to increase the current percentages of recycled content in key materials such as steel (20%), brass (30%), particle board (74%), or cardboard (65%).

Packaging management is another relevant point, encompassing measures such as the reduction of single-use plastics, pallet reuse with clients, or the reuse of factory plastic waste for the production of shrink film in a fully circular process.

Regarding waste repurposing, Roca Group studies and monitors pilot initiatives undertaken in some of its plants to scale up the most successful ones globally. In Austria, for example, its production plant aims to achieve a recycling rate of 98%, and in Germany, there is a proprietary system for the recovery and reuse of plastics in the production of installation systems.

Finally, concerning the product's end of life, the Circularity Roadmap proposes a plan of measures that includes promoting the distribution of spare parts and common repairs, as well as encouraging the recovery of uninstalled products for proper disassembly and recycling.

 

Life Cycle Analysis and Environmental Product Declarations

To monitor the impact of the various initiatives outlined in the Circularity Roadmap and quantify their scope and effect, work is based on the Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) methodology, evaluating the environmental impacts of the product during all stages of its existence: extraction, processing, production, distribution, use, and end of life. The results of these studies are published in Environmental Product Declarations, standardised and verified documents that disclose information on the environmental performance of each product or material.

 

Conceived as a working tool and based on a comprehensive analysis of the life cycle of products, the Circularity Roadmap constitutes a valuable instrument to ensure more sustainable and efficient processes with precise goals and specific compliance deadlines.