New Swiss Partnership Announcement
Allegra|Passugger joins the UpCircle network of responsible plastic recoverers
We are pleased to announce the partnership between UpCircle and Allegra|Passugger. Sustainability is a crucial topic for the Swiss enterprise Allegra Passugger Mineralquellen AG. The company's legacy is long and reaches back to medieval times when the mineral water source was first mentioned. Since 2005, a group of regional Swiss investors has shown themselves responsible for the company's and its partners' well-being. CEO Urs Schmid and COO Patrik Hemmi are passionate when it comes to the topic of sustainability and how they can improve their processes.
“Wir erachten es als eine Selbstverständlichkeit, achtsam und verantwortungsvoll mit unseren Ressourcen umzugehen. Unser Angebot verbindet Genuss und Lebensfreude mit Klarheit und Stabilität – als Quelle moderner und nachhaltig gelebter Gastfreundschaft.”
It is a topic that goes beyond carbon neutrality, responsible energy consumption, and material use. Schmid and Hemmi see a significant benefit in taking good care of their employees, customers, and the environment. Even though PET recycling in Switzerland hits a record 85% and single-use plastics are taken care of through thermal usage, Hemmi and Schmid see additional fields where they want to set an example.
"Products produced and wrapped in one country and then shipped to another rely on the condition of recycling and waste treatment facilities in the other country. Even though we don't ship our products abroad, we see the growing problem of plastic pollution due to the shipment of products to countries with non-existent waste treatment facilities. People living in those countries have no other choice than disposing of these products in landfills or waterways."
Although thinking of solutions to this problem does not lie in their company's domain, they decided to put the Swiss Startup UpCircle to the test. Hemmi and Schmid committed to recovering an equivalent of 3.7 tonnes of single-use plastics from nature in India. This matches their annual output of single-use plastics for the packaging of their PET bottles. UpCircle will provide proof of the recovery through their AI system, ensuring the entire endeavor becomes fully transparent.
"We liked the persistence of the co-founder Adrian Ensmenger and their vision of establishing a global system for the AI-assisted sorting and transparent recovery of plastic waste."
Slow and sustainable company growth, excellent customer service, and considerable care towards nature drive Allegra|Passugger. Today, we welcome them to join forces in the fight against global plastic pollution. This partnership enables us to develop further our monitoring system, which will help with the correct and automated identification of plastic waste—the first step to enabling robotic sorting.
