Greetings my packaging and sustainability friends. I hope everyone at the Sustainability in Packaging conference in Orlando is having a smashing time! I was fortunate enough to have attended the conference last year, where I was interviewed by Packaging Digest on what I thought was the most interesting thing I heard that day. Here’s the video.
Anywho, it has been crazzzzzzy at Dordan. I have some exciting news, but news I am not allowed to publicize for at least another month. Stay tuned, it’s super great.
Remember some time ago when I mentioned I had been interviewed by Packaging Digest for an article about balancing “sustainability” with other packaging requirements? The article was published in February but for some reason just became accessible. Anywho, I encourage you to check it out here; it presents some great resources for understanding the dynamic relationship between packaging and sustainability.
Also, man, this is the blast from the past post, but remember Dan with Plastics News—he did an article on Dordan and sustainability at Pack Expo 2011 titled “Beliefs, Culture, Ethics are the Backbone of Family-Owned Dordan Manufacturing” (article currently missing due to redesign of Plastics News website). Anyway, Dan is now at Smither Pira, which I believe, though I am not sure, is affiliated with the Sustainability in Packaging conference in Orlando; he emailed me some questions about sustainable packaging, which I was happy to entertain. One of his questions that I thought was really interesting was: The age-old, ferocious debate compostable vs. biodegradable: On which side of the fence do you sit?
To which I replied,
To be honest, I don't really think these concepts are in binary opposition but two sides of the same coin: “Biodegradable” doesn’t really mean anything without specifying the type of intended disposal environment for which said material will biodegrade (marine, litter, industrial composting facilities, home compost piles, etc.); “compostable” implies material biodegradability but only in a composting environment. Therefore, “compostable” is a more disposal-environmental savvy term for implying biodegradation while “biodegradable” is somewhat of a catch-all term for implying that a material can be organically consumed at the end of its life via micro-organisms present in the environment and re-purposed in second-generation biological systems.
Am I right or am I confused? If only I could figure out how to enable a “polling” feature for my blog, I certainly would like your feedback!
THEN Waste & Recycling News, a sister-publication of Plastics News, reached out to me about PET thermoform recycling, my favorite topic! I spoke today with a research analyst and I was so excited to be discussing developments in thermoform recycling, that I was like, pacing around my condo, slamming coffee and sweating. I discussed my research on plastic clamshell recycling, the amazing progress that has resulted therefrom (see articles to follow), and some existing obstacles. I look forward to seeing what type of content they put together in these regards, but I really hope they validate the assumption that PET thermoform plastic recycling is an economically viable solution to the supply problems the market is currently observing i.e. too much capacity, not enough collected material.
Here is what you should know about the current state of PET thermoform plastic recycling:
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To increase supply, Canadian grocers mandate all thermoforms sold transition to PET. Read more here.
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To decrease contamination issues, stakeholders developed an adhesive protocol that require all adhesives used on thermoform container labels comply with exisiting PET bottle recycling processes. Read more here.
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To develop the infastructure, SPI / NAPCOR issued a National RFP to recyclers to develop the technologies and processes to collect, sort, and recycle PET thermoform containers. Read about it here.
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NAPCOR includes recycling figures for PET thermoforms for the first time ever in its annual report on PET recycling. Get the report here.
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As of the Annual SPI meeting at Pack Expo 2012, 15 reclaimers were buying thermoform + bottle bales and 13 were processing thermoform + bottle bales.
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There are issues of over-capacity (not enough material available for reprocessors to meet demand) due, in part, to international export and the contined light-weighting of packages. Read more here.
What else, what else. Oh! Want to see our new print ads!?! They are a "family" and will be introduced into the wild via Package Design Magazine, an awesome publication for CPGs, retailers, brand owners, creatives, designers, whatevers, etc. These are screen shots of full-color pdfs so forgive the dimensions.
Bam! Seeing it sells it. Check out this video that describes the results of the eye-tracking consumer market research study, which discovered that plastic thermoformed packaging facilitates product sales 402% times more then paperboard boxes.