Circular Economy Bags

ESSI circular bag is one of the first Finnish products manufactured from recycled plastics. ESSI bags are made at Amerplast’s carrier bag factory in Tampere and over 90 % from recycled plastic materials, collected to a significant extent from Finnish households.

Separate collection of Finnish consumer plastic packaging waste started in 2016 through RINKI eco take-back points. The valuable plastics collected are recycled and processed with the help of latest technology into CIRCO® high quality recycled plastics at Fortum’s (former Ekokem) Plastic Refinery in Riihimäki, and subsequently delivered to Amerplast as raw material. Read more about Amerplast and Ekokem cooperation >>

The use of ESSI circular bags encourages further collection and recycling of plastics. It is important that valuable raw material is collected and reused for the manufacture of new products so nothing goes to waste, in line with the circular economy model. An estimated 70 000 tonnes of plastic is used annually in consumer packaging in Finland. Amerplast and Ekokem have built a base for Finnish circular economy in plastics, and ESSI is a concrete example of this circular economy in action.

ESSI circular bags were launched and first available in K-group stores in January 2017. Read more about the launch.