Valgroup’s Innovative Approach to Sustainable Plastic

The scourge of plastic in oceans is one of the most evocative images of the sustainability movement. According to the UN, around 2,000 truckloads of plastic waste are dumped into Earth’s oceans, rivers and lakes every day. This equates to more than 19 million tonnes of plastic a year.

Plastic pollution can affect habitats and natural processes, thereby reducing ecosystems’ ability to adapt to climate change. The ripple effect harms the livelihoods, food supply chains and well-being of millions of people.

Reducing the amount of plastic packaging used in our daily lives is one way to help cut its damaging impact on the environment. But this is not always possible, given that plastic is set to play a dominant role in our daily lives for years to come.

To help reduce its environmental impact, there has been a more conscious effort in recent years to develop a circular economy for plastics. Recycling and reusing packaging in new ways has a two-fold benefit. Firstly, it cuts demand for virgin plastic materials. And second, it prevents plastic from entering the natural environment, such as oceans and rivers, which are today plagued by plastic pollution.

Circularity in practise

Material circularity remains limited in the plastics sector, and large volumes of plastic waste still end up in landfills or are incinerated. These end-of-life pathways release embedded carbon and are a major source of Scope 3 emissions.

In Europe alone, the circular economy offers a business opportunity to unlock significant economic returns and decrease resource dependence at the same time as reducing pressure on the climate and the environment, according to the European Environment Agency’s ‘Unlocking the circular economy: investment needs, barriers and enabling conditions’ report, published in May 2026.

Building on recent research, the EEA suggests that accelerated investment is needed to meet the objectives of the circular economy policies already adopted, with a gap of around €2bn (US$2.34bn) each year for Europe up to 2040. Applying circular economy principles could boost EU GDP by 0.5% by 2030, the EEA adds.

But plastics, recycling and the circular economy are global problems that require local solutions.

Valgroup’s localised solution

Brazil’s Valgroup is the largest PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) recycler in Latin America and a major plastic packaging producer. It recycles 100,000 tonnes of PET per year, equivalent to 4.8 billion plastic bottles. With sites across Brazil, the company is also expanding its reach into North America and Europe.

It is conscious of the environmental impact that both plastics and the recycling processes can have. As a result, Valgroup set the goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2040 and recycling an equivalent to 100% of the packaging it produces. It is also working on new plastic products that are easier to recycle and have lower environmental footprints from the start and has developed products with accelerated biodegradability using simplified structures and recycled resins.

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According to the 13th PET Recycling Census, released by the Brazilian Association of the PET Industry (ABIPET), Brazil recycled 410,000 tons of PET packaging in 2024. This was a 14.2% increase compared to the previous year’s survey.

Leading sustainability with passion

For Larissa Ogera D'otaviano, Sustainability Director at Valgroup, the role neatly aligns with her passion for sustainability and her background as a chemical engineer.

“I'm a chemical engineer by background, so I started my career developing new recycling technologies, and one of them is advanced recycling,” Larissa said at Sustainability LIVE: The US Summit. She obtained a degree in chemical engineering from the University of São Paulo before earning a postgraduate degree in ESG and Corporate Sustainability from Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV).

“I started to design all the reactions, engineering things all the time, then I got so attracted to recycling because it's a new world. You have lots of new opportunities, so I started looking a little more into lifecycle assessments, sustainability and how our targets can be achieved through recycling.”

Larissa spent two years with BASF before joining Valgroup in 2018 and was then named Director of Sustainability in 2025.

“I completely fell in love with sustainability,” she says.

Mechanical and chemical recycling

Valgroup specialises in mechanical recycling but has also encouraged the development of chemical recycling.

Chemical recycling involves transforming plastic waste by altering its chemical structure, producing substances that can serve as raw materials for making new plastics or other products. Various methods include pyrolysis, gasification, hydro-cracking, and depolymerisation.

For Larissa, the two recycling techniques complement each other. With the rise of a circular economy for plastic packaging, having as many routes to reuse the materials can only be a good thing. Larissa believes the future of plastics recycling will be hybrid.

“For us, chemical recycling is more specific to plastics that cannot be recycled mechanically,” she explains. “For those who already have the mechanical process that way, they can count on it.

“PET is totally mechanical recycling. Other rigid materials can also be used in mechanical recycling. But we have lots of flexible materials, like snack packaging, that we use in our databases and that need chemical recycling to be part of the circular loop. So, they completely piece together, going in the same direction.”

Recycling Brazilian coffee packaging

In October 2025, Valgroup, along with American materials science company Dow and the Brazilian industry group Circular Movement, launched Brazil’s first coffee packaging designed for recycling. 

Made from polyethylene (PE), the new packaging was designed for recyclability and is a departure from traditional structures that are made with multilayer structures that combine plastic, paper and aluminium, which offer excellent barriers but make recycling processes difficult.

“We developed the first coffee packaging in Brazil that is fully recyclable. It's full PE packaging, so it can be recycled in a mechanical way or chemical way,” says Larissa.

The package design removes the internal metallisation layers of traditional coffee packaging, Valgroup says. But it meets the strict technical requirements of coffee packaging while maintaining the product’s quality.

Fully recyclable and aligned with the principles of the circular economy, the solution was adopted by Brazilian specialty coffee brand Catarina Coffee & Love.

“It's a perfect packaging, and we are trying to expand this with brands in general,”  Larissa says. “What is difficult is that people are resistant to not having multiple layers. They think it will not be as good as [other products with] multiple layers.

“But the packaging is totally perfect with multiple layers. What we are trying to do right now is show people that, where there is more technology involved, we are able to do the same as multiple-layer packaging with only one material packaging.

“My dream is to convince everyone that it's as good as the multiple-layer packaging and it's fully recyclable. In Brazil, we already have more brands using it for coffee. But now we are expanding to other applications also.”

Ramping up recycling

The road to a circular future continues for Valgroup and Larissa. While recycling rates are rising in Brazil and worldwide, there is still a lot to do.

In 2024, 6.4 million metric tonnes of dry waste were sent for recycling in Brazil, according to Abrema, the trade association. This equates to 8.7% of the total municipal solid waste recovered that year.

“Recycling more and better,” says Larissa about her plans for the company’s future. ​

“Work in the development of new recycling technologies. We need to close the loop even more. We already have good technologies in place, but we need to work even harder to make packaging 100% recyclable and 100% recycled.  

“We need to have this really close to it in order to reduce the consumption of natural resources. I think that's the goal of the company and that's the goal for my life also,” she adds.

Industry momentum

There has been significant emphasis on new materials for sustainable packaging in recent months, particularly in the food and drink sector, as consumers focus more on their own environmental footprints.

Waiākea Hawaiian Volcanic Beverages uses 100% post-consumer recycled plastic for its water bottles and recently introduced a net-carbon positive, algae-based ink for its packaging.

But it is not just start-ups and small-scale enterprises focusing on sustainability. US major food group Kraft Heinz introduced a fully recyclable ketchup bottle cap, while in January 2024, drinks producer Coca-Cola revealed its first-ever 100% plant-based plastic bottle, known as the PlantBottle.

Smurfit Kappa, one of the world’s largest paper-based packaging manufacturers, offers sustainable, biodegradable and recyclable products to serve industries ranging from food to e-commerce.