“The best waste is that which does not exist”, according to an increasingly popular saying. Wenaël Regnier is well aware of this and “looks for no greenwashing” when he claims that his products are “eco-responsible” and “sustainable”. The leader of Semco, a company near Nice, especially wants “that this waste does not end up in the sea”. He then developed since January 2021, Sempackan “alternative to packaging” because they are, according to him, “largely responsible for the seventh continent [une grande zone d’ordures dans le Pacifique nord] “.
Sempack is a pocket, which looks like a piping bag, conical, which can contain “all kinds of products and liquids, pasty or powder, develops the CEO of the company. The container is 100% recyclable and it produces 264 grams less CO2 than conventional packaging, a reduction of 70%”. And in the “anti-waste” logic, this container makes it possible to use 99% of what is contained inside. “We are thus responding to growing consumer demand with this offer”, assures the president of the group.
The “green plastic” for capsule jars
Wenaël Regnier has been working on this project for more than ten years. “I was working in the automotive industry when I experienced the 2008 crisis. We were told that the world after would no longer be the same, but we did nothing,” he says. He left this environment and took over the Monegasque company in 2011. Semcocapsule jar specialist since 1971.
“I then embarked on something in which I believed, to have a work logic in accordance with my values, he says. I had to try at my level to get things done. It is from this perspective that the alternatives to conventional packaging were born. »
He directly repatriated the production to France and modified the composition of these boxes to make them the “vegetable plastic experts”. “Since 2013, vegetable polyethylene, made from sugar cane, has been used to manufacture containers and which has the same properties as plastic but which takes care of the environment. From there, he said to himself that he had to “reinvent the packaging” because “all the bottles, flasks, tubes, and others, which have existed for years, can simply end up in a 100% recyclable tool”. He adds: “Sempack can hold anything, whether it’s ketchup or shampoo, we just adapt the head to make it the most optimal for the consumer. »
“Tomorrow’s packaging”
And Wenaël Regnier does not intend to stop there. After having imagined Sempack and the machines to manufacture them, he now wants to develop “a paper format” because what is currently used is still a plastic film. “It would obviously be a completely sealed technology, it’s the next challenge for tomorrow’s packaging,” he says.
The leader knows that it is “difficult to convince the industrial world” with this packaging, but he can count on “the company which is aware of the need to act” as well as on “the new national or European regulations”. “Industrialists no longer really have a choice and we are the first in the sector”, he can affirm after having patented all these innovations. “Being an instigator cannot guarantee success, we know that in this field it is long and expensive but it is possible to get there”, he concludes, always with this perspective of “moving towards 0 CO2 emissions which remains “at the dream stage” for now.