The factory for the production of flexible packaging belonging to the printing house sector, specializes in the development and production of flexible packaging for the various industries, among others, the food industry, medicine and hygiene, cosmetics and toiletries, the construction industry, and more.

In the factory, printed packages are produced by printing on sheets of different materials using two main printing methods, indentation printing and flexographic printing ("Flexo").

The sheets can be made of a number of layers, where each layer, depending on the material from which it is made, the thickness of the layer, its color, and its position in the layer of layers, gives the packaging different properties that help, among other things, in maintaining the quality of the product and extending its shelf life.

The layers that make up the sheet are attached to each other in a lamination process that is performed using two main methods, one based on thinners (Solvent-Based or SB) and the other without thinners (Solvent-Less or SL).

The printed sheets go through a finishing process that includes cutting into rolls, cutting according to shape, cutting into standing bags and more, according to the requirements of the final product.

The main raw materials in the various production processes include solid raw materials, which mainly include the rolls of the various sheets, and liquid raw materials, which include paints, thinners, adhesives, hardeners and varnishes.

Of all the liquid raw materials, the materials that are consumed in the largest amount, and significantly, are the thinners.

Of all the diluents, the diluents that are consumed in the largest quantities are ethyl acetate ("acetate" in the language of the factory) and ethanol ("alcohol"), with the amount of consumption of acetate being significantly greater than the amounts consumed of the other liquid raw materials.

The acetate is used as a main thinner in the printing processes in the intaglio machines and in the lamination machine (SB), and apart from that, the acetate is also used as cleaning agents for the paint carts and cylinders of the intaglio printing machines and as a cleaning agent for the coating rollers of the laminating machine.

In addition to being the main diluent in most wet manufacturing processes in the factory, since the vapor pressure of acetate is the highest of all diluents, it is also the most volatile diluent.

During the resource efficiency survey conducted at the plant, observations were made, among other things, of the various work processes at the plant, interviews were held with operatives and managers at the plant, emphasizing work processes that use volatile raw materials.

Also, a comprehensive review of the factory's procedures and work instructions was carried out, and a characterization of the various waste streams in the factory.

The plant's challenges that arose during the survey were mainly due to non-focal emissions of diluent vapors and suboptimal circulation of some of the used diluent mixtures, which resulted in large amounts of sludge being evacuated to Ramat Hovav, which are accompanied by increased treatment (and sometimes landfill) costs.

These challenges resulted in the loss of approximately 68 tons of acetate per year.

The optimization proposals of the Sotok Environmental Engineering company, which led the survey for resource optimization accompanied by an efficient institute, included, among other things, characterizing and identifying critical points for raw material waste, purchasing a system that allows the recovery of thinners from adhesive mixtures, implementing passive technology to reduce non-focal emissions, writing and adapting methods and procedures Work with the goal of reducing emissions and redesigning and upgrading other relevant systems and equipment components that will result in a significant reduction of diluent vapor emissions into the air.

The expected benefits from the implementation of the efficiency proposals include, among other things, a reduction in the loss of raw materials of approximately 68 tons of acetate per year, savings in greenhouse gas emissions of approximately 205 tons per year, a reduction in landfill waste of approximately 16 tons per year, and financial savings for the plant of approximately 714,000 NIS per year.