Plastic packaging has a smaller carbon footprint compared to alternatives over its lifecycle.
Plastic packaging is an efficient use of resources: In a report by TruCost, it was found that if plastic packaging was replaced with alternative materials, then it would come at a net-environmental cost by a function of four. In other words, it would take four-times the amount of alternative material (paper, glass, etc.) to perform the same function as plastic packaging.
Post consumer & industrial recycled content | PET recyclable post consumer | Closed loop raw material | Made in USA
Dordan offers thermoformed plastic packaging, like clamshells, blisters, and trays, made from up to 100% post-consumer recycled plastic. Post consumer means that the plastic is derived from curb-side collected and/or community drop-off municipally managed recycling programs. The largest type of post consumer packaging that is recycled into plastic sheet for thermoforming is PET beverage bottles.
All of Dordan's PET/RPET thermoformed packaging is recyclable post-consumer insofar as the majority of American communities (over 60%) have access to facilities that collect clamshells for recycling. Learn how Dordan helped make PET clamshell packaging recyclable from 2010 to 2015 here.
Dordan offers post-industrial recycled plastic packaging. Post industrial means that the plastic comes from industrial and manufacturing operations. All of Dordan's plastic scrap is ground on-site and returned to our material suppliers, which re-extrude the flake into post-industrial plastic sheet that Dordan purchases and thermoforms. This is a closed loop plastics recycling system.
Dordan offers bio-based/biodegradable/compostable plastic packaging solutions. However, there are environmental trade-offs between traditional plastics that can be mechanically recycled, like PET, and compostable plastics, like PLA, that do not have the necessary end of life management infrastructure established. For an update on the market realities of "green" plastics, download Green Plastics for Thermoforming: A Then & Now Comparative.
All of Dordan's packaging is made in America, and much of it is made from recycled plastic and is recyclable. Dordan sources its raw materials from local suppliers, creating efficient supply chains. Localized supply chains offer significant environmental savings when compared with packaging that is manufactured overseas and shipped to the various points of distribution. Typically, those countries manufacturing products and packaging for global consumption have mismanaged environmental regulations and waste management systems.
Sustainable packaging is complex: It's not replacing plastic with paper; or, favoring composting over recycling. Each type of packaging needs to be assessed from a life cycle impacts perspective in order to understands its sustainability; this means quantifying the carbon consumption and emissions related to the package's production, distribution, use, and disposal.
Dordan takes a science-based approach to sustainable packaging, and utilizes the communication channels at its disposal to educate others. It's goal is to elevate the conversation on sustainable packaging such that it is understood as part of a complex web of environmental inputs and outputs that are associated with the products and services we consume.
