Post by account_disabled on Feb 27, 2024 4:12:15 GMT -5
Everyone involved in the modern economy understands that there is a need to improve how items are protected, right? Therefore, circular packaging experts spoke on this topic.
The above, as reported by GreenBiz , was during the Impact conference of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition ( SPC ), which took place in San Francisco, United States and was attended by 600 people interested in sustainable packaging.
Analyze solutions
The largest packaging companies and consumer Chinese American Phone Number List brands, including Unilever , Mars and WestRock, to name a few, came together to discuss packaging.
We were immersed in learning and networking at the Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC) Impact Conference this week. What a great opportunity to connect, learn, share, and engage with others in the packaging industry on important sustainability challenges and trends. #SPCImpact pic.twitter.com/faev4ZV5UH
Given this, Jon Smieja, Vice President, Circularity and Senior Analyst at GreenBiz Group, commented that he hoped to learn from the deep knowledge of the experts and hear about the solutions that can lead us to a more circular future. Likewise, he highlighted three points of reflection regarding the packaging problem, these are:
The nexus between food waste and packaging.
Recycling and composting, which are improving, but still have a way to go.
Packaging in the fight against climate change.
The global food waste challenge is real
As ReFED reports, about 35% of all food—nearly 80 million tons—in the United States goes unsold or uneaten each year. Most of it becomes waste that is landfilled, incinerated, washed down drains or left in fields to rot.
It is clear that packaging solutions that keep products fresher longer can reduce overall waste in the system. However, a stronger container can often have negative effects on recyclability and increase the amount of packaging used and the associated environmental impacts.
3 ex3 experts in circular packaging give their opinion…experts in circular packaging give their opinion…
This is where the industry sees an opportunity for innovation to address trade-offs and develop new solutions. “Food packaging and waste are often considered binary options: food is packaged to extend shelf life and avoid waste, or sold loose, which is believed to lead to waste,” says Olga Kachook, director of Bioeconomy and Reuse Initiatives at GreenBlue.
He also highlights that reality is more complex, because food waste can occur even when products are packaged and designed to be stored.
Experts in circular packaging
An innovative company in food waste reduction , Imperfect Foods , is addressing a couple of circular economy problems, through its model of selling "imperfect" groceries that, because of this, would not be marketed.
Imperfect Foods' story overlaps with SPC Impact in its packaging, as a national brand that ships perishables unsurprisingly requires sealed boxes, protective packaging, and cold packs.
Imperfect Foods is officially a @bcorporation ! This means our business benefits not just shareholders, but people and the planet, too. We're able to achieve this special certification because saving food from waste is at the core of everything we do. t.co/g6nujAY5jD
— Imperfect Foods (@imperfect_foods) November 1, 2021
Although the corporation has done its best in recent years to address its customers' annoyance by making much of its packaging returnable and reusable, and the rest easily recyclable. Because they deliver the product themselves, they can pick up the containers to sterilize and use again.
Solutions for recycling and composting
Recycling and composting alone will not build the circular economy and the packaging industry knows this. Mechanical recycling is a big part of the solution today, and is likely to be for quite some time.
Making this work requires a focus on better collection and separation technologies through innovations such as digital watermarking, artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic sorting. The above will make the result of the process of higher quality and can be used in more applications.
Advanced recycling methods such as purification, conversion and decomposition are a burgeoning field, but are not at scale at this time to meet demand.
circular packaging experts opinion
Christina Boyd, Product Management Engineer at Printpack, has provided some insights into this field and how important it is to break down misconceptions and build this space for the future.
Composting facilities constantly struggle with the dual challenges of separating contaminants from organic material and being profitable. Major players are beginning to employ AI and robotics in their facilities with great initial success.
Atlas Organics, for example, is employing robots and is confident it can get to less than 1% pollution over time.
For her part, Nina Goodrich, executive director of GreenBlue, thinks that collection is the key to improvement since she assures that "we are really bad at collecting most of the materials" which makes the task of reintegrating them difficult.
Chemical recycling has the power to unlock new streams and once they are chemically recycled into building blocks, they can become new raw materials for a wide range of materials.
Nina Goodrich, CEO of GreenBlue.
In this sense, Karen Hagerman, director of SPC, added that there is excellent and innovative work throughout the value chain, but the question of the approach is to really connect those dots and harness the collective energy and initiative to change the system, of so that all parts can scale at the same time.
Packaging and climate change
While packaging accounts for only a portion of total carbon emissions, there is recognition within the sector that it can have indirect carbon impacts and that steps can be taken to reduce these.
