M&S Using Water-Saving Packaging to Transport Flowers

Retailer Marks and Spencer is using modified atmosphere packaging, which uses less water, to transport thousands of flowers over Valentine’s Day. The company, which already uses the special packaging to transport fruits and vegetables, said it will save 10,000 litres of water on Valentine’s Day by using this technology to deliver its £22 bouquets of Fairtrade red roses, reported the Daily Mail.

Finlays Horticulture has used MAP bags to transport flowers to M&S customers since 2011, according to M&S. Once a bag is sealed, oxygen levels in the bag decrease and carbon dioxide levels increase naturally. The change in atmosphere reduces the respiration rate of the flowers, which extends storage time and reduces the need for water, said M&S.

The MAP packaging has been designed to be airtight, which takes up less space and weight in delivery trucks, saving on fuel.

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Coffeebrewer: Innovative and smart paper-based bag

Danish Coffeebrewer Nordic has created a disposable French press called the Coffeebrewer that works right inside its own bag. 

The Coffeebrewer is basically a hybrid between a filter dripmaker and a French Press. The design of The Coffeebrewer enables a perfect extraction as the volume of the pouch allows the hot water to interact with the coffee grounds and extract the aroma. The filter is designed to preserve all natural oils and flavours in the coffee.

 

Puma Shopping Bag Dissolves in 3 Minutes

German shoe and sports apparel company Puma is on a mission to reduce its carbon “paw-print,” starting by making its packaging more environmentally responsible.

Europe may ban plastic bags

With each European using 500 plastic bags per year, and tonnes of plastic littering the Mediterranean, the European Commission may ban them from stores or tax them to combat pollution.

Europe produced 3.4 million tonnes of plastic carrier bags in 2008 -- the equivalent in weight of two million cars, according to the European Union's executive arm.

The bags often end up in the sea, taking hundreds of years to decompose, it said. Some 250 billion plastic particles weighing a total 500 tonnes litter the Mediterranean, threatening sea life which can suffocate eating them.

In some EU states, plastic bags are banned from stores or consumers must pay for them in supermarket lines, but there is no EU-wide regulation.

The EU Commission launched on Wednesday a public consultation which will run until August to decide the best course of action to reduce the use of plastic bags.

"Fifty years ago, the single-use plastic bag was almost unheard of -- now we use them for a few minutes and they pollute our environment for decades," said European environment commissioner Janez Potocnik.

"But social attitudes are evolving and there is a widespread desire for change. That's why we are looking at all the options, including a Europe-wide ban on plastic carrier bags," Potocnik said.

The EU executive said it also wants to gather opinions on increasing the visibility of biodegradable packaging products and boosting the biodegradability requirements for packaging.

 

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PackNews of the Week: Bioplastics, BagTheBox, Sustainability Survey and Seven packaging predictions

Bioplastics to pass the one million tonne mark in 2011

Global bioplastics production capacity will more than double from 2010 to 2015. Capacity is predicted to pass the one million tonne mark already in 2011, according to a current study presented today by the industry association European Bioplastics in cooperation with the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Hanover at the interpack trade fair in Dusseldorf.

From a figure of around 700,000 tonnes in 2010, the production capacity for bioplastics will increase to a predicted 1.7 million tonnes by 2015. The current year will see capacity pass an important threshold: the first half of 2011 already shows production capacity exceeding 900,000 tonnes. The million tonne mark is close, and will likely be passed by the bioplastics industry within this year.

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Seven packaging predictions for a resource-strapped future

Tony Kingsbury, executive-in-residence, Center for Responsible Business, UC Berkeley, and an executive with Dow Chemical, shared some of his packaging-related predictions for a resource-scarce future:

1. The most resource-efficient package will win

2. Functionality will be king

3. Keeping the molecule in play will gain momentum

4. Reusables will gain marketshare where it makes systems sense

5. Bio-based packaging materials will grow, but not necessarily biodegradable

6. Transparency will drive societal full-cycle thinking about packages

7. Life-cycle data will increasingly drive material decision-making

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Malt-O-Meal® Bags The Box!

It takes 345 million pounds of paperboard to make a year's supply of cereal boxes – that's the weight of 734,747 jumbo jets! Through the new Bag The Box™ movement, Malt-O-Meal is out to change the way people think about their breakfast choices, and how products – such as cereal in a box – can affect the environment.

To kick off the program, Malt-O-Meal has launched a website and blog devoted entirely to Bag The Box, where users can view fan-created videos and exchange ideas on sustainable packaging and green initiatives

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Sustainability Survey Reveals Challenges in Global Packaging Industry

The need to package food, consumer and industrial products in a more sustainable and affordable way dominates the worldwide packaging industry, according to DuPont’s global survey of consumer packaged goods companies and packaging converters.

More than 500 packaging professionals were surveyed and over 40 percent sited sustainability as the toughest challenge while 33 percent named cost as a major factor.

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Malt-O-Meal: Bag the Box, 75% less packaging, 100% “funny”

Bag the Box: funny and sustainable. I like it

Are Biodegradable Bags a Viable Option for Composting?

Industry and governmental groups partnered to launch a campaign in Thailand to test the option of composting as an effective means of waste management for the country, utilizing biodegradable bags in the collection of household organic waste in the process.

The pilot program will also serve as a foundation for developing Thailand’s bioplastics industry, which was initially conceived in 2008. Some estimates put Thailand’s potential fertilizer generation capacity in the range of 6 million tons annually, creating a potential export product for the country.
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As composting programs continue to grow in cities such as San Francisco, broader means of collecting organic waste could be a future challenge.
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The use of bioplastic bags could address this issue, and in Thailand, will “further raise environmental awareness and encourage the use of environmentally friendly products as a new social norm,” according to Suchinda Chotipanich, permanent secretary, Ministry of Science and Technology and chairman of the Bioplastics Industry Development Subcommittee.
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This is the first time the government has initiated measures like this at the community level.

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“In evaluating and developing sustainable options for end-of-life product waste management, we have to remember that landfilling of organic, biodegradable waste generates methane – a greenhouse gas 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide – and composting helps to reduce emission levels of this harmful green house gases,” said Chotipanich.
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Jens Hamprecht, head of Global Product Management, Biodegradable Polymers for BASF, the company that created the Ecoflex bags utilized in the pilot, is confident that the project will serve as an example for other programs.
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“We believe this project will also be an excellent showcase for other countries in the region which are considering a similar initiative,” he said.

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Biodegradable waste bags "more damaging" than PE

A detailed life cycle analysis (LCA) study of plastics waste bags carried out by Germany’s Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IFEU) has shown that traditional PE resins are less damaging in environmental terms than the biodegradable versions currently on the market in Europe.

The study - which was commissioned by Germany’s Association for Plastics Packaging and Films (IK) - shows that, when all environmental factors are considered, the least environmentally damaging option for plastics waste bags is to use recycled PE, followed by virgin PE. The current biodegradable options – including both petrochemical and renewably-sourced plastics – performed the worst in its analysis.

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A comprehensive summary of the findings of the IFEU study can be viewed here

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Packaging of the Week: Silver Hills Bakery’s new visual identity

Silver Hills has got a brand new bag

The re-branded packaging has a distinct shelf presence that beckons to be picked up and examined. Using solid, matte colours, which are unusual for the category, the colourful, biodegradable bags include witty illustrations by Robert Hanson. The lighthearted illustrations evoke the new names visually and cleverly incorporate captivating bread windows to display the product.

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Growing compostable plastic bag use

Via Green Chemicals

Confusion might still lingers on what bioplastics really mean but their use is definitely growing.

In the compostable bag sector, SunChips maker Frito Lay announced that they are going to launch in 2010 the world's first fully compostable chip bag of its kind, with the bag fully decomposing within 14 weeks - when placed in a compost bin or pile. See the video below!

The company will use NatureWorks polylactic acid plastic Ingeo (usually made from corn) in the packaging's outer print web film and inner barrier web film. The adhesive layer gluing the two films together will be made with other "also" eco-friendly material.

Frito Lay said it did not replace all the materials with PLA as there is currently not enough PLA supply available at this time and there are still work needed to maintain the packaging's quality. The company, by the way, also explains the difference between degradable, biodegradable, compostable and renewable plastics.

Meanwhile, KMart in Australia last month said that they are going to use bioplastic shopping bags for their 12 stores in South Australia using Cardia Technologies Limited's Biograde compostable bags. South Australian Government's ban on plasticcheckout bags takes effect on 4 May 2009.

In Minnesota, the state's Department of Administration, Materials Management Division picked Northern Technologies International's Natur-Tec(r) Compostable Plastic Bags for various state agencies' use.

In addition, under Minnesota's Cooperative Purchasing Venture (CPV), entities such as counties, cities, townships, school districts, charitable organizations and community clinics are also eligible to procure Natur-Tec(r) compostable plastic bags from NTIC at the prices and terms negotiated with the State.

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Plastic bag obsession is carrier for environmental ignorance

It's time to refocus; plastic bags are not the scourge of the planet, their biggest evil is to distract us from more pressing causes.

Don't get me wrong – I don't like plastic bags either. We use too many of them, just as we use too many of all the earth's resources. They litter the countryside and cause problems for wildlife when they end up in the sea. But their total impact is microscopic by comparison to almost anything else we do. As environment writer George Marshall records in his excellent book Carbon Detox, our annual average consumption of bags produces 5kg of carbon dioxide a year. Total average emissions are 12,500kg.

Plastic bags aren't even a very large component of domestic waste. Plastics in general – according to a study by South Gloucestershire district council – account for 18% of total household waste. Plastic bags account for 18% of the plastic, which means 3.2% of total waste. Clingfilm (23% of domestic plastic waste) produces a greater proportion than plastic bags.

So why this fetishisation? Because dealing with plastic bags is easy. Easy for the government, easy for retailers, easy for shoppers. It threatens no one, makes money for the shops (if they charge for their bags) and ensures that everyone feels better about themselves, while continuing to trash the biosphere just as we did before.

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