Coca-Cola’s innovative renewable, recyclable, plant-based plastic bottle

The "PlantBottle", made partially from plants, is fully recyclable, has a lower reliance on non-renewable resources, and reduces carbon emissions, compared with petroleum-based PET bottles.
Traditional PET bottles are made from petroleum, a non-renewable resource. The new bottle is made from a blend of petroleum-based materials and up to 30 percent plant-based materials.

"The Coca-Cola Company is a company with the power to transform the marketplace, and the introduction of the "PlantBottle" is yet another great example of their leadership on environmental issues," said Carter Roberts, President and CEO of World Wildlife Fund, U.S.

Before we describe the PlantBottle in detail, let’s have a look at the sustainability and recyclability of renewable resources first. Is the PlantBottle a “great example” as the World Wildlife Fund claims?

Apart from overflowing landfills and shameful dispositions in nature, petroleum based plastic is responsible for the deaths of millions of sea creatures and has, as the story goes (I have never been able to check it) created a plastic garbage island twice the size of Texas in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

In the industrialized world, packaging for all types of products has become both necessary and truly ubiquitous. As more people become "modern consumers" around the world, it is an increasing burden on producers, individuals, and the environment. According to a new study from Pike Research, sustainable packaging is a fast-growing segment of the global packaging industry, and will grow to 32% of the total market by 2014, up from just 21% in 2009.

"The $429 billion global packaging industry is huge but extremely fragmented, with no clear market leaders," says Pike’s managing director Clint Wheelock. "As such, the move toward sustainable packaging represents a broad-based effort by manufacturers, retailers, industry groups, and governments to promote the design of minimal packaging that can be easily reclaimed. A tremendous amount of innovation is going into reducing energy requirements to manufacture packaging and using more recyclable and compostable materials, but there is still a long way to go."

The market intelligence firm forecasts that plastic-based packaging, which represents 35% of all materials used, will be the fastest-growing sector of the sustainable packaging market over the next five years.

But there is a little problem, as Napcor (National Association for PET Container Resources) calls for restraint in the use of degradable additives in PET packaging. Napcor, the trade organization for the PET packaging industry, is concerned that no data has been made publicly available to substantiate or document:
1) the claims of degradability of PET resin products containing degradable additives;
2) the effect of degradable additives on the quality of the PET recycling stream;
3) the impacts of degradable additives on the products made from recycled PET; and
4) the true impact on the service life of these products.

In this light Napcor urges manufacturers of PET resin and packaging to refrain from introductions of degradable additive-containing products until data is made available for review and verification.

In 2007, 1.4 billion pounds of post-consumer PET containers were recycled in the United States. The post consumer recycled PET infrastructure depends on the quality of the recyclate and its suitability for a variety of next-life product applications. The value of recycled materials, such as PET, is an important economic driver for curb-side recycling programs throughout the country.

Aside from the potential impacts on recycling, Napcor questions the value of the concept itself. Whether or not it’s proven that packaging will safely degrade in landfills, or as roadside or marine litter, the value of the inherent energy used in the manufacture of plastic packaging is lost, not recaptured as it is through a recycling and re-manufacturing process.

“Even if a package were to disappear or fragment - and we’ve not yet seen this evidence - it would not make the package sustainable, nor does it provide any positive impacts in terms of greenhouse gas emissions or resource conservation,” said Mr. Sabourin, Napcor’s Executive Director. “Degrading plastic provides no useful nutrients to the soil, and the impacts to soil and sea of reducing the plastic to molecules using degradable additives is unknown.”

What does that mean for Coca Cola’s PlantBottle? In the first place, Coca Cola claims that, unlike other plant-based plastics, the PlantBottle can be processed through existing manufacturing and recycling facilities without contaminating traditional PET. So, apparently the material of the PlantBottle does not bio-degrade, but can be recycled without contaminating the PET recycling process.

The PlantBottle is currently made through an innovative process that turns sugar cane and molasses, a by-product of sugar production, into a key component for PET plastic. Coca-Cola states that it is also exploring the use of other plant materials for future generations of the PlantBottle.

Manufacturing the new plastic bottle is more environmentally efficient as well. A life-cycle analysis conducted by Imperial College London indicates the PlantBottle with 30 percent plant-base material reduces carbon emissions by up to 25 percent, compared with petroleum-based PET.

Coca-Cola North America will pilot the PlantBottle in select markets with Dasani water.

The PlantBottle is undoubtedly an interesting development, as it reduces carbon emissions by some 25% compared to petroleum-based bottles. That's a drastic cut in emissions considering the millions of Dasani bottles manufactured each year. It's a great marketing tool too, as Coca Cola plans on identifying the bottles with "on-package messaging and in-store point of sale displays".

Earlier this year, Coca Cola opened the world's largest plastic bottle-to-bottle recycling plant in South Carolina. The plant will produce approximately 100 million pounds (45.359 mtons) of recycled PET plastic for reuse each year - the equivalent of nearly 2 billion 20-ounce (593 ml) Coca Cola bottles.

90537

Gaïa and Infinite Glass

In Greek mythology, Gaïa is a primordial goddess identified with "Mother Earth". She is the maternal ancestor of divine races, but laboured also many children as monsters.

photo: Eon and Tellus (Gaia) surrounded by four children, perhaps the personified seasons, mosaic of a Roman villa Sentinum early third century, Glyptothèque Munich (Inv. W504)

The French glass manufacturer Saint-Gobain Desjonqueres SA created Infinite Glass, the 1st 100% recycled glass, from which sprouted the Gaia range of bottles and jars, designed by the design agency Extrême Paris and dedicated to the perfume and cosmetics market segment.

Glass, endlessly recyclable, is known to be one of the most environmentally friendly materials. Although 100% recyclable, its composition is never 100% the result of recycling.
Cullet, a raw material used by glassmakers, coming from selected glass waste and reintroduced into the glassmaking process, can account for up to 95% of the raw materials used for glass manufacturing. On average, cullet makes up 53% of the raw materials used for packaging containers.
In the perfume industry, glass is usually composed of 30% of in-house cullet (recycling of the production loss) and 70% of raw materials (silica sand, limestone and soda ash).

Using a higher level of cullet in the glass production enables lower (virgin) raw material extractions, lower carbon dioxide emissions as each metric ton of cullet used in the furnaces results in a CO2-reduction emitted into the atmosphere of around 500 kg and lower energy consumption, since collected glass melts at a lower temperature than natural raw materials.

Glassmakers' performance is dictated by the requirements of excellence in terms of quality imposed by their customers, albeit restricted by the manufacturing process, glass have to be flawless. This does of course apply to recycled glass just as well as to new glass. The greater the amount of cullet used in glass manufacturing, the higher the risk of impurities will be.

To highlight the importance of the newly developed 100% recycled glass matching perfumery standards Saint Gobain launched Gaia, the first 100% environmentally friendly range of bottles and jars for the world of perfumes and cosmetics.

The designers at Extrême Paris, a design agency specialised in luxury and beauty products, were asked to base the designs on the idea of a continuous cycle, where nothing gets lost and everything is infinite. They have managed to convey the values of the project by creating a highly distinctive form. The design plays with material movements, the fluidity of waves and the balance of elements. The first curves of an eco-designed receptacle were born, inspired by creations from the goddess of nature.

In a press release Saint Gobain concludes: “Almost 18 months of research and development went into creating the Infinite Glass and its first incarnation: Gaïa. It constitutes a genuine call to beauty specialists to promote environmental responsibility,”

90356

Sustainable Products from the Amazon Rainforest

Of course this is a post about an innovation in packaging. The innovation comes from the Amazônia region, the largest concentration of freshwater and biodiversity of this planet and the natural habitat of the animals represented in the series of sustainable packaged products we are discussing here.
As it is Earth Day, today, a little background information must be welcomed by everyone reading this post.

Earth Day Introduction to the Amazon Rainforest
In April this year government officials, business leaders and non-governmental organisations agreed, during a debate on "Managing the Amazon: A Global Responsibility?", hosted by the British BBC, on the need for rich countries and companies to recognise the people living in the Amazon jungle as "providers of environmental services" and "pay" them for contributing to the fight against climate change by not deforesting.

Pamela Cox, the World Bank's Vice-President for Latin America and the Caribbean stated, that the world has to acknowledge that the Amazon has an environmental value, and it should decide how much it is willing to pay for that. If the Amazon is the "lungs of the world," it should be given a value, she insisted.

However the problem is basically Brazilian. Brazil, one of the eight South American countries that share the Amazon jungle, is the world's fourth biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, with 48 percent of its gases coming from ‘illegally’ burning the rainforest by cattle-farmers to clear land for agriculture and pasture.

But, slowly, slowly something is changing. Under the "Bolsa Floresta" programme, families receive a monthly payment for not participating in deforestation, explains Virgilio Viana, director of the Sustainable Amazon Foundation which provides the Bolsa to 10,000 families who live in 35 protected areas in the Amazon jungle, which, he said, could be expanded and replicated in similar projects financed by the private sector.

With contributions from the private sector, the families also receive advice and financing for sustainable development projects, such as rubber-tapping, fishing and harvesting of Brazilian super-fruits, nuts and cashews.
"That is the way to reduce deforestation to zero. That is the way to make them guardians of the jungle," says Viana.

Well, let’s discuss one of these private projects. Already for years, Amazônia Natural, a brand of Nutriphitos Cosméticos Ltda of Pinhais in the federal state of Paraná, extracts in a sustainable way products from the Amazon Rainforest to create purely natural cosmetic products. Faithful readers of my blog will remember the company, as I wrote in January the post “Pure nature - The fragrance of the Amazon dancing in the wind” and here they are again with their sustainable cosmetics and amazing packaging design.

The Products and Packaging
The products are created with the highly concentrated predominant properties of Brazilian super-fruits, from which the essences are extracted. The super-fruits, Maracujá (passion fruit), Pitanga, Cupuaçu, Castanha-do-Pará, Buriti, Andiroba, Açaí, are all in one way or another rich in vitamins, minerals, carbon hydrates and anti-oxidants, they are nutritive, vitalizing, hydrating and healing. They are the power-houses of the modern energy drinks and revitalizing cosmetics.
(He, who likes to read more about the Amazon super-fruits and its sustainable exploitation, click here to go to the more detailed mirror of this post on my blog: “Brazil In Hot Pants”)

The new series of soap bars has 7 essences, exploiting the fruits typical of the Amazon region and mirroring the colour of each product, show the textures of the leaves of the various species in shape and graphic design.

Although derived from Amazon fruits, the contents of the jars and bottles are not for consumption. They are to hydrate the body. Amazônia Natural launched among others the Pitanga Moisturizing Body Gel, developed with moist maintaining substances that moisturise and leave the skin soft, with a dry, not oily touch. The feeling is refreshing. Pitanga has anti-radical properties.

Amazônia Natural's products are focussing on the middle class, a consumer segment which values products through design of their packaging. The products are sold throughout Brazil.

According to Ludger Tamaoki, the designer and creator of the packages, "the objective of the project is to draw attention of the consumer in displaying the products as a tribute to the Amazon Rainforest with images of nature and the environment, fundamental attributes of the brand."

The cardboard boxes, printed in offset in 4x0 colours on Vita Carta 300 grs folding paperboard, are mounted through slots, to reduce the impacts in printing and the use of glue. The packages are manufactured with recyclable materials and non-polluting substances such as acetate, present, for example, in glues.
The textures of the region (in this case wood), the rustic illustrations of each fruit, coupled with a clean and impressive graphic design are the main features of the visual program adopted for the product line of Amazônia Natural. Each packaging of this brand contains information about the Amazon Rainforest, its flora/fauna and even preservation tips.

To complete the packaging series, Ludger Tamaoki, partner of Brainbox Strategic Design, created also a series of gift bags, in the same style. The bags evoke the importance of the animals of the Amazon Rainforest. The paper bags show replicas of animal species and form a collection with seven models.

90431

Milk in a Pouch - Innovative and Sustainable

The milk container market, one of the most important and traditional of all the food and beverage packaging segments is ripe for sustainable developments and design novelties. From the glass milk bottle to the existing plastic or cardboard containers over more than 60 years little changed in that market. Up till recently.

Last year UK’s Food and Farming Minister, Lord Rooker, called for the dairy industry to become more sustainable, targeting 50% reduction of plastics used in milk packaging as a key goal for 2020. (photo right courtesy Waitrose)

Although for the majority of industries sustainability is solely a moral issue at best, pressure of the environment conscious consumer in turning it around into an economic issue is evident. As a consequence marketing departments and designers have to see it as a creative challenge. The challenge is to come up with aesthetically attractive designs that are environmentally responsible, grant the basics of protecting and presenting the product, stimulate consumer behaviour to purchase and repurchase. Although not a consumer requirement, an innovative packaging might be a sales-booster.
Here starts the contradiction. Some companies have introduced highly disruptive designs creating a huge impact on the shelves in the supermarkets. Some have even managed to create revolutions in a specific category of packaging by using different structures or materials. However, consumers, hate change of the traditional and trusted day-to-day products, and there is always a degree of resistance to anything that affects the tradition. One of these “traditional” categories is the milk packaging.

The US consumer is much more conservative in regard to changes in packages of basic day-to-day products, in contrast to the UK consumer who is more open to changes in ‘traditional’ packaging as long as ‘greenness’ and sustainability is served, and convenience not frustrated.

In the UK and the USA in particular, the dairy industry is marketing its milk products in plastic milk bottles, mostly made from High Density Polyethylene (HDPE), causing a tremendous pressure on landfill and nature.

Widely used in the European and sparsely in the UK and US milk industry, the Tetra laminated cardboard packs are common in the juice sector. Although reasonable green, the discarded empty packs can’t be put in the main cardboard recycling stream as they are made with plastic coated lamination and contain aluminium elements and other materials which prevent their disposal into the general recycling schemes. They require special recycling facilities.
As far as I know, there are none Tetra recycling facilities in the UK (and the USA) at the moment, only in Brazil, where Tetra Pak has a recycling plant for their packs.

These two packages, the plastic bottle and the Tetra pack, are the two main pillars on which the distribution chain of milk is based.

Let’s have a look at three recently developed ‘green’ milk packages in the UK:


• Suffolk’s Marybelle dairy began in late 2008 to sell its milk in ASDA stores located in eastern England in the new GreenBottles (see photo above). The GreenBottle is made from cardboard pulp with a plastic inner bag. As a matter of fact you could call it a bag-in-box. A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for GreenBottle completed by PIRA found that the carbon footprint of GreenBottle was 48% lower than the HDPE milk bottle.
• Daylesford, an organic UK dairy producer managed to innovate both structure and materials, resulting in a sensational milk packaging, which I baptized bag-pack. Made from calcium carbonate, the biodegradable, bag-like plastic pack is cut into a striking jug shape. It is innovative, stylish and sustainable.
• Sainsbury’s debuted the milk bag with Jugit from Dairy Crest that comprises of a plastic pouch of milk used in conjunction with a specialized reusable jug. The jug’s two-piece lid features a hollow spike attachment that perforates the pouch when closed. The top of the attachment flips open to provide a handy, recloseable spout.

The GreenBottle - A Bag-in-Box
When you take a look at the bottle with its mat white appearance, it looks like a plastic milk container. However it is a double folded tray made from cardboard pulp, a system identical to the well-known pulp packages for eggs. The outer shell is made from recycled paper (90.7% waste paper) which can be recycled again, or if left it will just decompose within a matter of weeks. The plastic inner liner, which takes up less than 0.5% of the space of a plastic bottle if dumped in a landfill, prevents liquid from contaminating the paper case. The bag can be made from conventional Low Density Polypropylene or a Corn Starch alternative.
The GreenBottle consumes about a third of the energy required to make a plastic bottle and has a Carbon Footprint that is 48% lower than plastic.

To get this result some handling has to be done: First a loose inner bag is inserted into a paper spout. The bag is then folded and with the spout, placed into the outer shell. The bottle rim is glued, folded over and closed. Finally the bottle is filled, the spout is closed and sealed, and the label is applied.

Resistance of the consumer is probably minimal as the final result looks and handles like a plastic milk container. A clever idea, which has some similarities with the 360-Paper-Water-Bottle, I wrote about some time ago.

Bio-degradable bag-pack
Over twenty years ago, Daylesford began to turn their family land in the Cotswolds and Staffordshire over to sustainable, organic farming. It was the start of a passion: to grow crops naturally, and rear healthy animals. The rich organic milk from their herd of Friesians - a different taste entirely from more industrially produced milk - seemed to entreat Daylesford to expand in a creamery and other related activities.

Skilled artisan cooks work alongside organic gardeners; cheese-making is practised next door to willow basket-weaving, dry stone walling and other traditional, precious country crafts; people working together, sharing a vision.
From this traditional, if you like ‘old-fashioned’ environment, almost gone everywhere else in the world, comes an amazing development: The bio-degradable milk bag-pack.

As Daylesford does not reveal details, we have to make an assumption as the 'Daylesford' bag-pack (photo left) looks very similar to the recently by Sweden-based manufacturer Ecolean (photo under) unveiled new lightweight aseptic packaging system for liquid food products.

This package is made up from a flexible multi-layered polymer film, baptized Calymer, consisting of 60% polyethylene and polypropylene and 40% calcium carbonate.
According to the manufacturer, the package weighs just 14 grams, which is a 40-50% reduction on a conventional liquid food carton or bottle.
Although flexible material, the bag-pack stands up steadily, thanks to the flat-bottom design that does the job. The air-filled handle makes it easy to get a grip and the spout makes it easy to pour.

The Calymer material should not be confused with bio-degradable plastics on the market as they follow a different life-cycle. According to Ecolean’s site, a disposed Calymer package can either be recycled as a traditional plastic or “recovered as energy by incineration.” And here is the difference with Daylesford, as they claim that the bag-pack is bio-degradable.

The system requires a proprietary production line with filling machines and packing stations. The filling machine opens, fills and re-seals the packages in 2.4 seconds. Although their Ecolean packaging is available with the system, the Calymer material itself is not for sale separately.

Calcium carbonate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula CaCO3. It is a common substance found in rock, and is the main component of shells of marine organisms, and eggs..

The Jugit
In the past milk-in-a-bag has been introduced in several markets, among others in the Netherlands, with none or little success. Apparently the UK consumer is more open to this type of 'dressed-down' milk packaging and I must say the jug necessary to be used with this milk bag has undergone a tremendous innovation.

Developed by Dairy Crest in association with the Sainsbury’s supermarket chain, Jugit offers consumers a pouch-based format that uses substantially less packaging material than conventional plastic milk containers, allied to the convenience of an easy-to-pour, reusable jug.

The basic consumer resistance to adopting liquid pouches is the means of opening and pouring. Typical consumer fears about pouches include the suspicion that bags will burst, their lack of recloseability and concerns that they can only be opened using scissors. Design agency Vibrandt 1hq developed the Jugit to specifically overcome these factors.

The secret to Jugit’s success is an innovative two-part lid featuring a hollow spike attachment, which perforates the pouch as a natural consequence of assembly. After the pouch is dropped into the jug and the main body of the lid closed, trapping the top of the bag using secure clips, the spike is inserted to perforate the pouch. The top of the attachment then flips open to provide a handy, recloseable pouring spout.

The lid, spike and handle are injection moulded in white PP, while clear material is used for the two pint jug all manufactured by RPC Market Rasen. The pouches are manufactured by Glopak.

This new packaging system for milk for Dairy Crest, has been so successful that it is now been extended to over 200 Sainsbury’s and Waitrose stores across the UK.

80723 - 90315 - 90330

The ‘greenness’ of Easter Eggs

Worldwide the period up to Easter is traditionally a ‘wasteful’ period in terms of packaging material. The sales in Easter Eggs and other (chocolate) products during the Easter period is enormous and consequently the consumption of fancy and mostly non-recyclable packaging materials. Easter time is one of the most important periods for the chocolate industry, it represents some 10% of their annual sales volume and for years, chocolate companies have used bigger and more flamboyant packages to excite children and their parents, to boost sales and profits.

In several countries, however, the Easter Eggs are stripped of their exorbitant packaging, as manufacturers cut down on packaging material or replace it by environmental friendly alternatives in their attempt to let Easter Eggs go green.

Reducing packaging creates challenges, as Easter Eggs are typically hollow and fragile. They need a form of protection during the distribution chain in order to ensure that the eggs arrive on the shelf in one piece.
Although in general Easter Eggs are presents, with the packaging representing an integral part of the gift presentation, the chocolate industry is under constant pressure, as consumer’s attention is increasingly turned to sustainability.

Let’s visit the UK and Brazil to see the difference in “waste-management”.

United Kingdom
In the UK the most remarkable changes in the Easter Egg packaging can be seen, since major Easter Egg manufacturers in the UK such as Cadbury, Kraft, Mars and Nestlé entered into a collective and voluntary covenant with WRAP ((Waste & Resources Action Programme’s), agreeing to make significant packaging reductions to their 2009 edition of Easter Eggs.
The move by the leading chocolate manufacturers is part of a sustainability drive across this industry segment, which uses 4,500 tons of packaging material for Easter Eggs every year. ....... continue reading


90310

Innovation is Key to Sustainable Packaging

"Innovation can eliminate packaging waste and enable a future where all packaging is recycled or its value is recovered", said William F. Weber, vice president and general manager - DuPont Packaging & Industrial Polymers, during the keynote address at the Packaging Strategies CEO Summit.

“The packaging industry has long focused on reducing to the minimum necessary packaging. But this is not enough - we can do more through innovation.”

“Packaging provides value in preventing costly food waste. And, in the future, all packaging can provide added value through recycle and recovery,” Weber added. “By broadening our thinking about what recycling means from a narrow focus on physical recycling to a broad suite of solutions that includes capturing the energy in packaging through waste-to-energy or the nutrient value of food and packaging through composting, we can deliver sustainable value to our customers, to consumers and to the world. This must be our goal as an industry going forward.”

As an example, Weber outlined DuPont’s approach to sustainable growth. He described sustainable packaging, which is aligned with the company’s goals to create shareholder and societal value by reducing the environmental footprint of the value chains where it participates, as an important focus area for DuPont, a leading provider of high performance and innovative performance materials.

Weber called on the packaging industry to take three actions:
* Develop new technologies that will enable broad recycling in the future. Examples include waste-to-energy, better sorting technologies among others.
* Set standard measurement and reporting metrics that communicate the footprint for packaging products and the end-of-life recommended disposal method.
* Support the cap-and-trade approach as a way to establish clear, predictable market-based requirements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, providing a clear pathway to rapid transformational change to the low-carbon economy the industry seeks.

According to Weber, collaboration will be key to developing technologies and systems for end-of-life solutions that enable this vision, but in light of the economic environment, collaborative innovation is important now.

“We absolutely must drive waste from the packaging value chain. Initiatives to cut waste will yield improved sustainability as well as cost-effectiveness,” Weber said.

90278

Why?

It is remarkable with the economy worldwide at its (probably) deepest point, that there is an avalanche in verbal positioning of multinationals and international organisations, to defend the status of the packaging industry, to pronounce their views for the future, to promote effective measurements for recycling and sustainability and in general to justify the overall use of packaging.

If you think the recession will temper consumer interest in sustainability, you think wrong. Packaging development programmes focussing on sustainability and degradability - in other words ‘green packages’ - will probably accelerate.

Why? Despite the economic recession, nearly 60 per cent of the consumers pay attention to the environmental friendliness of the food and drink packaging during their grocery shopping, claims a new survey released during the recent Anuga FoodTec in Cologne.

Why? Because, according to Tony Burns, associate director, sustainability, for Proctor & Gamble’s Global Package and Device Development (GPDD) group:
“About 80 percent of our consumers tell us that environmental sustainability is important. That [in] itself is reason for us to engage in this and to meet the needs of the consumers. They may not pay additional money right now for more sustainable packaging, but it’s important to them. Whatever benefits they are buying our brands for, we want to make sure that we package that in the most sustainable fashion possible.” and continues, “At times it does feel like packaging is becoming ‘the villain’, when in reality it is a small player in the overall environmental footprint of the product. However, viewed through the lens of our consumers, packaging is the first thing and also the last thing that they experience with our brands. Therefore if it is important to our consumers, then it is important to us.”

Why? Because when the US credit market collapsed, iconic institutions went belly up and corporations begged for handouts, something snapped in the public consciousness. Average people everywhere wanted someone or something to blame for the colossal mess, argues Mary Aichlmayr in her article “Can we live in a one-dimensional world?”
And continues to say (and I quote her in an edited version, cursive words are mine, to suit this blog):
“And, it changed everything.

Companies - the smart, perceptive ones, anyhow—started describing business objectives in three dimensions. Instead of focusing only on the financial bottom line—which consumers saw as the evil that got us into trouble—they used the term “triple bottom line.”

Turns out the phrase was coined back in 1994 by John Elkington, founder of London based business consultancy SustainAbility. He said there were three ways to measure a company’s progress: environmental impact, contribution to society and economic strength. Yes, that last one is profit - the original bottom line.

Clearly, one bottom line isn’t enough anymore. We now have three. Businesses have to think three dimensionally, linking disparate practices into one big survival strategy.

One-dimensional thinking is traditional, transactional and commodity focused. It’s the slap-and-ship mentality that says green is just a feel-good slogan. It’s appearance, not action. It’s talking, not doing.

Appearances only get you so far. The commitment has to be woven into the fabric of corporate strategy.

And, packaging plays a crucial role in a company’s long-term performance. Innovative and sustainable packaging design depends on simultaneously meeting the demands of three primary business dimensions: customers, employees and supply chain partners.

The buying public is sizing up your responsibility scorecard. The next generation of employees demands corporate accountability. Your supply chain partners just might force it on you”.
end quote Mary Aichlmayr

In our ongoing series of industry views which include (see previous posts) the visions of Dow Chemical in: “Dow Challenges Packaging Industry to Work Together Toward 100% Recyclability” and of IPPO in: “Packaging is the Answer to World Hunger”, we continue with the view of Dupont in the next post:
“Innovation is Key to Sustainable Packaging, DuPont Leader Tells Industry Experts”





Japanese Fashion: Recycled PET-bottles

Dow Challenges Packaging Industry to Work Together Toward 100% Recyclability

This is a paper I received from Dow Chemical and publish here unabridged as it is of importance for the future of packaging.

Plastic packaging is an important part of the solution in the big picture of sustainability, waste and the environment, according to The Dow Chemical Company. In a strong message first delivered to a recent gathering of packaging industry leaders, Dow is challenging packaging value chain members to work together toward 100 percent recyclable packaging solutions - and asking consumers to challenge their misconceived view of plastic packaging as "waste."

"Plastic packaging is viewed by many consumers as waste, or a problem, or in some cases as unnecessary," said Glenn Wright, commercial vice president for Dow's North American Basic Plastics business. "But if you dig a little deeper, a very different story unfolds, and you realize that plastic packaging can be very much a part of the solution to many challenges facing society. In reality, packaging should be viewed as a waste reducer. It contributes to the extended shelf life of many food products and reduces the amount of product lost to contamination. Through material science advances, companies like Dow are also creating opportunities for thinner and lighter-weight packaging, which can translate into tangible resource savings."

Raising the ante for the packaging industry as a whole, Wright added: "All the players in this industry need to work together to demonstrate the concept of life-cycle thinking when it comes to plastic packaging - from first uses to multiple re-use or traditional recycling, and eventually to the concept of recycle-to-energy - sometimes known as energy-from-waste. This last idea is exciting because it could potentially allow us to make two good uses of plastic packaging, first to save resources when used in a package and second as a source of energy that we could harness.

"As I think about these energy-producing possibilities, I ask myself, why do we mine coal for energy, yet bury plastic, even though plastic has nearly twice the energy value, according to the American Chemistry Council?" Wright observed. "Wouldn't it be great if we could help society view used packaging in its true light - a renewable energy resource, not waste?"

While the goal of 100 percent recycling, all the way to recycle-to-energy, is a bold consideration, Dow is calling on industry leaders to join it in challenging the status quo and find ways to initiate this industry-changing concept. For instance, with all rigid packaging materials being recyclable, could the recycling number on packaging be eliminated to reduce confusion and increase public participation in recycling? Could improved product marking for consumers also help them better understand the energy content (or second life value) of plastic packaging?

"The energy content of plastic packaging is significant," Wright said. "If we recycle the petroleum resources we've used back into energy, then we could actually get two uses out of the packaging in the end. Retailers and consumers could then experience these changes most noticeably in terms of energy- and purchase-related cost savings."

For example, thanks to the increased shelf life packaging provides, a grocery store can save 10 percent of energy costs associated with refrigeration *). These savings translate into decreased use of natural resources, which could be used to provide a family with electricity for more than 12 years**).

*), **) Sources (Equation Data): American Chemistry Council; U.S. Energy Information Administration

source: Dow Chemical
90321

Pure nature - The fragrance of the Amazon dancing in the wind

The capillarity of the wooden sticks transmits the fragrance of the perfume from the Amazon region to the ambiance of the room.
15% of the world’s total of all known vegetal species (plants, trees) and 10% of all mammals are concentrated and trying to survive in the Amazon region.

This source of fresh air to the world, home to (besides man and animal) many super-fruits, medicinal plants and other useful species, will be destroyed soon. Between 2006 and 2007 11.224 km2 has been deforested - 20% less than in the period 2005-2006. Compare 2004 when one of the highest indices (27.379 km2)) in history had been registered. Hopeful? No! In the last 5 months of 2007 the devastating activities for prime wood, soy and cattle has been accelerated. Between Aug and Dec 2007 3.235 km2 has been cut down and satellite pictures show it could be twice as much.

It is no wonder that many individuals, research centre and companies are feverishly looking to the Amazon forest as a tremendous source for sustainable exploitation, which might stop the illegal activities that cause the destruction. Responsibility and sustainability are the keywords.

With the recent trends in healthy food, energy and fortification drinks, interest in Amazonian “superfruits” is growing. It’s little wonder that produce as açaí, coco, cupuaçu, buriti, acerola, pitanga, guaraná and medicinal plants as andiroba, are tagged with such superlatives as ”the next great super food”. I shall explain the names of the fruits and their significance in a later post regarding innovations in food. Just for now an example: Cupuaçu, described as a “pharmacy in a fruit”, is loaded with a variety of flavonoid polyphenols that act as antioxidants, including catechin and epicatechin (the same as in green tea) and quercetin, the polyphenol found in grapes and berries.

But it is not only the edible components which are extracted (in a sustainable way) from the Amazon rain forest. Since some years exquisite perfumes are created from this region, as well as the ingredients for a wide variety of shampoos and cosmetics.

The Indian smelling sticks in mind, Nutriphitos Cosméticos Ltda developed a similar product with the natural fragrance of the Amazon delta. The “Perfume para ambiente” (Perfume for the ambiance) releases its fragrance through the capillarity of the wooden sticks which stay in contact with the perfumed liquid. It lasts up to 5 months.

To market the new product, art director Rodrigo Teixeira of ZehDesign created a packaging holding the bottle with the olfactory liquid and functioning as a display. The wooden sticks are positioned at the side of the packaging fixed with a sisal rope, as a show-off to the costumer.

Not surprisingly this packaging won the Prêmio ABRE in Brazil.

Every single item of this product is natural and sustainable, highlighting the closeness to nature of this brand. The Vitacarta 300 g/m2 card board box is made from 100% recycled material and offset printed.

71132
© Weslley Murylo de Souza Steeman
amsteeman@yahoo.com.br