Quality, Harmlessness and Environmental Policy

By publicising this Quality and Environmental Policy, the Board of Plásticos Vanguardia, S.A. aims to acknowledge that both Quality and the Environment are among the company’s priorities, and it fully assumes its responsibilities towards the quality of the products offered and the Environment. To this purpose it unifies the goals of the staff to guarantee a proper management of the Quality Assurance System and the Environmental System. Therefore this Policy has become part of the company’s Strategic Plan.

Our work will focus on the following points:

I. APPLICABLE LAW

The company’s Policy includes the commitment to comply with all relevant legislation, regulations and rules, as well as with other requirements established by the company. In other words, the company will ensure that it complies with all current and future applicable legislation.

The company also complies with client requirements and with all other obligations that the organisation voluntarily acquires, including a commitment to improving working conditions and occupational health protection for workers, as well as ongoing improvement in the management of and compliance with Employee Health and Safety.

II. ORGANISATION

To provide a structure and RESOURCES that will help develop the QMS and EMS implemented, as well as to review the established goals and targets and to measure performance against them.

The company shall establish and maintain a QMS and EMS, and these will be documented in detail to prove their operation and monitoring.

III. ACTIVITIES

This Policy is appropriate to the nature and environmental impact of the services and activities performed by Plásticos Vanguardia, S.A. and it is aimed at ensuring the organisation’s purpose insofar as services and products offered and at protecting the environment and conservation of natural resources.

To this end, the company will work to:

• Eliminate, reduce, reuse and recycle all types of waste, discharges or emissions that it generates and make efficient use of the materials and resources. The focus is also on eliminating or reducing any deviation that happens and is detected, and on making an efficient use of the management system elements implemented.
• Assess risks and hazards to quality and food harmlessness, so they are controlled and minimised at all times, by effectively implementing the HACCP and Quality and Environmental Hazard Assessment systems.

IV. CLIENT SATISFACTION

The company will work to eliminate or reduce any deviation that happens and is detected, and to make an efficient use of the management system elements implemented. To this purpose, the requirements specified by clients will need to be correctly identified by the company in order to meet the satisfaction index defined in the goals established for the current financial year, and also to meet the expectations set by each client during their relation with Plásticos Vanguardia, S.A. as supplier of the relevant product.

V. ONGOING IMPROVEMENT

Ongoing improvement of the processes, products and services regarding their relation with Quality, Harmlessness and the Environment will be encouraged and the results of any new development pertaining to them will be assessed in advance. The company will continue to develop and implement technologies to reduce contamination with the aim to minimise the impact of the plant and office activities on the surrounding area, as well as to develop and implement the necessary tools to improve the service offered with the goal to minimise the non-conformities found during the activities carried out by Plásticos Vanguardia, S.A.

To this end corrective and preventive actions will be taken to prevent and avoid the advent or repetition of defects during the provision of services.

VI. AWARENESS

To raise awareness of, as well as to monitor and demand that the instructions and actions indicated in the Procedure Manuals are known and observed to guarantee the correct application of the Policy principles.

Plásticos Vanguardia, S.A. shall encourage the communication of best practises on quality and the environment in all the areas where it participates or has access to. To this purpose the company will work and train its own employees to improve the activities they perform and their environmental concern, and it will raise workers’ awareness that the end purpose of the manufactured products is contact with food, and the consequences such products may have on consumer health.

The company shall promote internal and external communication at all levels between departments and companies so that both the staff and the market are aware of the efforts made.

VII. SYSTEM ASSESSMENT

The most immediate goal of this edition of the Policy is to join our forces to achieve the objectives set. This is why we will implement specific procedures to establish Goals and Targets, as well as to review them and the policy itself, in order to maintain their efficiency and to adapt to changes in the environment.

The company has undertaken to help minimise pellets in the marine environment through Operation Clean Sweep (OCS). To this end it maintains the Risk Analysis system that guarantees the proper identification and assessment of pellet loss.

VIII. POLLUTION PREVENTION

The company shall identify and then shall seek to reduce significant environmental impacts that are consequence of the processes and operations that it carries out, as well as to prevent pollution.

IX. RESPONSIBILITY

All Plásticos Vanguardia, S.A. employees will be involved in the company’s Quality, Harmlessness and Environmental Management System, therefore mechanisms to encourage their sense of responsibility in this area will be arbitrated.

X. COMMUNICATION

We encourage external communication with suppliers and clients and with the relevant health authorities to inform both on our own concerns and on the needs of clients regarding food safety issues and compliance with market, agents and stakeholders’ requirements and expectations. We also seek to support the company’s strategic direction and to make this Quality Assurance Policy publicised, understood and accepted by both the staff and the Board of Plásticos Vanguardia, S.A., as well as to make it available to stakeholders.

The implementation of this functional Policy is critical in all aspects of Plásticos Vanguardia, S.A.’s activities, and the achievement of these points is supported by the application of an Environmental and Quality Management System that meets the requirements of the Standard ISO 9001 and ISO 14001.

The satisfactory implementation of this Policy is based on the individual involvement and concern of all employees working under the responsibility of the Board.