Petrochemical producer MOL Group has signed a strategic supply chain partnership with PRS, a leading supplier of sustainable wooden pallets to the polymer and petrochemical industry.
The partnership will ensure the deliveries of packaged polyethylene (PE), and polypropylene (PP) from MOL Petrochemicals sites in Tiszaújváros, Hungary and SLOVNAFT in Bratislava, Slovakia on pooled re-usable pallets, creating a seamless and more environmental-friendly logistics process.
The process involves the retrieval, repair and recycling of pallets – a circular movement of hundreds of thousands of sustainable wooden pallets which, compared to the previous one-way pallet model, saves up to 54,000 mature trees from being cut every year.
This partnership is fully in line with MOL Group’s long-term ‘Shape Tomorrow’ Strategy 2030+ for both optimising the efficiencies of the supply chain and reducing the company’s carbon footprint, as well as becoming the key player in the circular economy in Central and Eastern Europe.
PRS, a subsidiary of the Faber Halbertsma Group, operates a pooling system which repatriates, repairs and reuses pallets as part of a perpetual cycle.
“Within the partnership, we are working collaboratively with the whole MOL organisation – from procurement to sales and logistics. The additional benefit of our partnership with MOL Group is an easier collaboration with our converter community,” said Rinus de Kok, Commercial Director at PRS.
“This is a major shift for MOL Group, moving from a position of a buyer to becoming a fully-active player in the circular economy. Besides very important environmental sustainability, we significantly improved our operational sustainability as well as the quality of our packaging material, which is appreciated by the customers and also logistics employees,” said Tomáš Marek, from MOL Downstream Petchem Logistics.
Bence Körmendi, MOL Group’s Petrochemicals Business Unit director, said: “Circularity in our complex supply chain is the only way forward for MOL Group as it helps reduce our environmental impact at a time when many multinational organisations are committing to more sustainable approaches. PRS has a strong legacy over many years of working collaboratively and cost-effectively in the pan-European circular economy – experience that makes them a reliable business partner.”
