Sustainable Plastics - January/February 2022 - 25

sustainable packaging
packaging.
Using even a small sum of
plastic goes a long way into
extending the shelf life of fresh
food. Research has shown just
1.5 grams of plastic wrapping
can extend the life of a cucumber
by 11 days, while using plastic
bags can protect loose produce,
like potatoes, to reduce
wastage by up to two-thirds.
Plastic packaging
recycling and the
circular economy
With plastic offering clear benefits
as a packaging material, the
issue is not one of suitability, but
of recyclability. Worldwide, plastic
packaging recycling rates are
exceptionally low, but demand
for plastic is increasing, so endof-life
plastics should be considered
a resource, not a waste
product. Steps must be taken
to ensure the capture, recovery
and reuse of all plastics at end
of life, instead of allowing them
to pile up in landfill or the natural
environment.
In 2018, the Ellen MacArthur
Foundation launched the New
Plastics Economy Global Commitment
to encourage brands
and organisations to collaborate
to form a 'circular economy'
for plastics. The commitment
brings together stakeholders
from over 400 organisations,
including Nestlé, PepsiCo, Unilever,
Veolia and Walmart, to
rethink and redesign the future
of plastics.
Meanwhile, governments
around the world are introducing
legislation to create a more
sustainable market for recycled
plastics. Legislation includes
plastic packaging taxes - such
as those introduced in the EU
from January 2021 and in the
U.K. from April 2022 - payable
by businesses that do not meet
a minimum percentage of recycled
content within their plastic
packaging. Extended producer
responsibility schemes are also
being introduced in the U.K. and
EU, which make packaging producers
responsible for paying a
proportion of the costs for waste
recovery and recycling, with the
aim of reducing the amount of
packaging sent to landfill.
Work is also taking place in
the petrochemical industry to
support the move to a circular
economy. Its aim is to increase
the quality of post-consumer
recycled plastics and to research
chemical recycling - a
process based on taking plastic
polymers back to their original
feedstock. For many, chemical
recycling is a key contributor
toward closing the gap in the
plastic chain.
Moving in this direction
for plastics requires more effort
and cooperation between
governments and key players
across the plastics industry to
standardise materials and recycling
systems. This includes not
just plastics producers and recyclers,
but also brand owners,
manufacturers and retailers.
Below are five key areas
that organisations should
consider as they strive to
tackle the plastic waste issue
and improve their sustainability
credentials:
1 Evaluate packaging components.
Can
you alter your packaging
to use less material, remove unnecessary
components or aid
recyclability without compromising
product integrity? Currently,
overpackaging is an issue,
and there is a problem with
packaging design using too
many layers and components.
Packaging produced from
multiple components can cause
problems with recycling, especially
if non-recyclable components
are tightly bonded to
recyclable materials, making
them difficult for consumers to
remove - meaning they contaminate
recycling streams.
2 Conduct a life cycle assessment.
There
are many life cycle assessment
(LCA) tools and conLee
Metters
sultancies available to help illustrate
the environmental impacts
of different packaging options.
Before selecting a tool, you
need to be clear on which processes
in the product's life cycle
you want to include in the
LCA. It's important to bear in
mind that different tools use different
metrics, so they may yield
slightly different results. It is
important to be consistent and
ensure that progress is made
in the areas that are of greatest
concern to your organisation.
3 Review space-saving in
transport and logistics.
Space-saving is key for product
design and sustainability,
because transport costs contribute
significantly to a product's
overall environmental
footprint.
Designing products that can
easily and effectively slot together,
reducing unnecessary
components and lightweighting
packaging, all play a part in assisting
here.
4 Increase levels of
post-consumer recycled content.
The ultimate goal of a circular
economy is to get toward
utilising 100% recycled content,
but the plastics industry is still
a long way from being able to
deliver on this in practice.
Mechanical recycling of plastics
presents barriers to achieving
100% recycled content. It also
comes at a cost: PCR is more
expensive than virgin materials,
purely because it is scarce and
in high demand. A mix of virgin
materials and PCR is a viable
packaging solution and is one
of the main ways of demonstrating
your brand's commitment to
sustainable plastics.
5 Build recyclability into the
product design process.
In theory, all plastics are recyclable,
but the reality is that
because of limitations with recycling
facilities and issues with
separating multilayer materials,
very few actually are.
There are three fundamental
rules to follow when designing
for recyclability:
1 Use monomaterials. Multilayer
plastics are difficult to
recycle, and the majority of
household recycling schemes
don't recover them.
2 Use natural-coloured
plastics instead of coloured.
The addition of colour causes
greying in the recycling stream
and can cause issues with material
identification at recycling
centres. Coloured plastic also
has a lower resell value and is
less attractive to commercial recycling
services.
3 Use widely recycled
materials such as PET, polyethylene
and polypropylene
instead of less widely recycled
items like polystyrene, PVC,
and ABS.
Developing a pure stream of
plastic waste for recycling will
improve the overall quality of
PCR. This means organisations
will be able to use a higher percentage
of PCR in new products.
It also will increase the volume
of recycled material used to generate
new products and reduce
the cost of recycled content.
Conclusion
For some, a move away from
plastics is neither possible nor
desirable. There are also certain
risks with changing how a product
is packaged - and for many
manufacturers, plastic remains
the only viable packaging solution.
The positive news is that
plastic packaging can still play
a key role in sustainability. For
organisations that are currently
using plastic as a packaging
material, it is important to understand
the available options
and identify the right solution to
suit individual needs.
Developments into new and
improved plastic packaging will
undoubtedly continue for several
years, and coding and marking
technologies will need to
evolve alongside these. Some
of the risks involved in designing
for sustainability are being
dealt with through the development
of laser - and ink-coding
solutions for new packaging
solutions - including recycled,
recyclable and bio-based plastic
packaging.
It is through a collective effort
on understanding the viability
of all packaging substrates, including
plastics, that we will be
able to address the global sustainability
agenda.
Lee Metters is the group
business development
director at Domino Printing
Sciences.
January/February 2022
25
Sustainable Plastics - January/February 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sustainable Plastics - January/February 2022
