Latin American Agrochemical Trends: Creating a Circular Economy

As Gold Sponsor of AgroPages Agribusiness Magazine, Greif was featured in their Annual Latin America edition, sharing insights and expertise on key trends and innovations shaping the packaging of agricultural goods. With 14 plants located across six countries of Latin America, Greif specializes in the production and supply of steel drums, plastic containers, and packaging closures for a wide range of industries.

Focused on Protecting the Future, Greif looks toward trends within the agrochemical market, such as increased food demand and rising income levels. These changes disrupt current food consumption patterns by placing a higher focus on animal products and raw produce over processed foods. But increasing productivity to meet consumers' demand can also lead to an increase in agrochemical consumption.

Sustainability efforts remain at the center of discussion for Greif, creating innovative technologies geared towards reducing waste and carbon emissions. Developed by its Global Industrial Packaging team in Brazil, Greif has produced a fully recyclable, high-performance, multi-layer barrier technology for high-value UN-certified jerrycans and bottles. To reduce recycling costs and carbon emissions, ECOEX barrier technology offers a more sustainable alternative to COEX, which can only be reground and repurposed in low-value applications such as pipes.

ECOEX technology was created to assist customers who require a high-performance barrier to transport goods, such as pesticides or fertilizer, but want their packaging to have high recyclability properties with the ability to be recycled into UN-certified packaging.

Gustavo Melo, Market Intelligence Manager for Greif Latin America, stated, "The recyclability of multi-barrier products supports the circular economy strategy of Greif, providing a less expensive option to recycle and creating value for customers while supporting their own environmental sustainability goals." Using the Greif Green Tool, a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) calculator developed in Germany based on ISO 14040/14044 standards, a 45.5% reduction in carbon emissions was found when comparing ECOEX jerrycans against COEX. Lastly, for customers currently using COEX packaging, the transition to ECOEX is seamless as there is no need for UN re-certification.

Greif holdfasts its vision to be the best performing customer service company in the world. While continuing to build a circular economy, the company actively seeks new investments in sustainable technologies, operation improvements, and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives.

Check out the interview with Gustavo Melo in AgroPages Magazine here.

To learn how ECOEX and other PCR industrial packaging can evolve your business, click here to be contacted by a member of our sales team.