Taplast, the Italian company specialised in the design e production of  closures and dispensing systems for the personal care & household detergents sector, offers marketing support thanks to a new system of eco-evaluation that increasingly determines the design of its products.

A recent evaluation based on the LCA (Life Cycle Analysis) conducted by Professor Giovanni Dotelli, of the Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering  "Giulio Natta" at the leading Milanese university, highlights the lower impact in terms of CO2 emissions of the Taplast All Plastic Pump, a dispenser that uses a spring made of polymeric material instead of the usual steel spring. Thanks to this Taplast patented innovation, and to the progressive reduction over the last few years in the number and weight of its components, such solutions not only use less resources in terms of materials and energy for their production and transportation, but also their recovery post-consumption is simplified due to then being mono-material products made exclusively in a polyolefin base.

In particular, CO2 emissions are 11,5% lower than those of traditional steel spring pumps and generate a substantial benefit in environmental terms: over the last 11 years Taplast has sold over 830 million of these pumps, thus contributing to the reduction in the discharge of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere to the tune of 5.063 tons!.

In practical terms, the use of 10 million All Plastic Pump instead of metal spring pumps on a given branded product means a saving that compensates for the emissions from 1 million hours of the energy consumption of a 100 watt tungsten bulb or the annual energy consumption of 34 family dwellings of 100 (m²)- 119,6 (yd²) class A; or is equivalent to the natural compensation that would result from the planting of a 110 108 (m²) - 131 700 ( yd²). of chestnut forest.

"The advantage that we offer our clients - announces Paolo Santagiuliana - is the possibility to use the content, - by that I mean the overall environmental value of our dispensing systems, correctly analysed by the LCA, in marketing and communication activities to support a given consumer brand".

Brand promotion by the communication of a package that's responsible in an environmental sense is, today, a business opportunity; but at what price? "The reply comes from the end consumer -  what they select from the shelf and why  - states Santagiuliana - The consumers final choice is influenced by the combination of several key factors: amongst these are, apart from the price, the brand's strength and values and increasingly, the power of the retailer and his ability to communicate Co2 emissions produced or saved at point of sale.

Faced with two similar solutions in terms of performance but different in their design and environmental impact, which will the consumer choose? Price will naturally play an important part. However, if within similar price bands an advantage that everyone recognises and agrees upon is offered by a certain product, which package will the consumers reach out for? "Of course, environmental value is built, verified, and communicated properly, but it doesn't necessarily imply an additional cost" maintains Taplast's Managing Director.

Sustainability is a value that can be built into the supply chain, in co-design involving suppliers and clients, including suppliers of packaging solutions: in this case, the advantage deriving from this will be a value shared by all players about the policy regarding distribution and costs. If we consider that sustainability is not a value that costs any more to communicate than that of other values, its here, then, that the variable ‘environment' becomes a competitive advantage.

It's important to make a start even from small things like a simple dispenser pump - suggests Santagiuliana - the environmental value that we offer our clients can be declined in the most coherent way in line with a brand's positioning; or, for those more innovative, the value can be associated to other LCA, relating to other packaging components, like the label and container, and/or to the product contained and the way it is consumed and disposed of at the end of its life". Even if the difference in CO2 emissions per unit is limited, the consumer is aware that every little action, due to a multiplier effect, can on a larger scale make a significant contribution to safeguarding the environment and in this respect many Taplast's products can make the difference.

Following the results in terms of eco-design and of the Life Cycle Analysis of its All Plastic Pumps, the company most important product range, Taplast has already undertaken further analysis for its other dispensers and closures: the objective is to use the integrated environmental evaluation of the lifecycle of a product as part of the companies guidelines for all new product developments. And it is really amazing how the final result can be different playing with different designs and materials ....

Taplast, develops and produces plastic dispensing systems (caps and pumps), for leading multinationals in the consumer goods sector in the personal care & household detergent segments. A family company, founded in 1973 that is today run by the second generation of the founding Santagiuliana family.

Taplast innovates bringing together design, ergonomics, reliability and attention to the environment.

Sustainable development right from the design phase (Reduction of materials, design to facilitate Re-use and easy Recyclability) is the company mission that then offers with its products a reduction of the amount of CO2 emitted into the air throughout the products lifecycle with respect to competing products.

Innovation that is coherent with product identity has led Taplast, from 1995 to the present day, to be recognised with over 11 awards for ‘best product' in international design and packaging competitions were the company found itself up against the most important and much larger companies in the sector.

Today Taplast has a production site in Vicenza, Northwest Italy, and further international production sites in Poland and in Mexico. The company has a young dynamic team of 108 employees with an average age of 35; it also controls an autonomous R&D and design division - Brain@Work, that manages the development  and engineering for the companies own products and for custom-made products for its clients.  Sales of the company in 2007 were 24 million euro - a 16% increase on 2006. For 2008 a further increase of 14% is expected in particular coming from Usa. 52% of sales value is from products that have less environmental impact with respect to traditional dispensing solutions available from competitors.