Designing Waste Out of Packaging & Consumer Goods

Exposing a rather high specific energy demand in the production process chain, the glass industry is under increasingly high pressure to decarbonize. This is particularly true as energy prices soar, and in addition, the cost of CO2 certificates is on the rise. In addition, the planet is polluted with incredible amounts of plastic waste, with detrimental effects on our ecosystem, and ultimately the basis of existence. While plastic seems to have second-to-none merits when it comes to breakage behavior and weight of food and beverage containers, a new solution might be on the horizon, a technically more competitive solution to packaging needs by improved glass container solutions.

The topic of plastic-free is becoming more and more prominent in social media. We may still be a little ahead of our time, but we are convinced that the demand will increase massively in the near future.

Paper is one the oldest forms of packaging and now has a large role to play in the transition to a post-fossil circular economy. When plastics appeared as an alternative, they took market share from many of the more traditional and natural packaging materials, but this trend is now beginning to reverse. Some of those packaging may be plastic-free according to demanding requirements like the Single Use Packaging Directive (SUPD) but some still needs to use combinations with conventional plastic to reach the right level of barrier performance and to ensure the appropriate protection of packed goods. Such directives have also triggered intensification of the efforts to scale research for using naturally occurring biopolymers as well as coating alternatives which not only derive from renewable resources but also potentially provide improved end of life scenarios.
We will illustrate the topics with three examples:

-Fresh produce packaging solutions that use both a plastic-free tray and plastic-free lid to meet new SUPD requirements in France that ban plastic for such segments. In addition, such packaging can demonstrate an improvement in recyclability as well as climate impact both directly at the packaging level and in terms of providing extended shelf life to packed products vs. benchmark plastic packaging.

-Multipack solutions that are plastic-free and that can also answer concerns in some SUPD implementation measures, for example in Spain, where the use of plastic in small packs, like plastic rings, is discouraged as they too often accidentally end up in the environment and are not suitable for recycling. Likewise, the different aspects of shifting to such solutions will be discussed with a systems perspective.

-Highlights of current collaborative research on conventional plastic-free barriers including proteins, cellulose derivates, etc. as well as other approaches for surface treatment will be shared as an outlook on potential future packaging trends.

Now New Next BV together with Intersnack BV and Albert Heijn BV and Verstappen BV have reduced the nut cup (large volume) with around 25% by just changing the design of the cup by adding ribs. a significant lowering of the material by adding design thinking and tricking the feel of the consumer by adding ribs. a case that have not been explained before and a simple but effective way to reduce material and with little loss of rigidity.

CKG will introduce the important actions business, governments and citizens need to make change in helping develop products for the good of people, the planet AND generate profits. CKG will explain his learnings in cotton and will then focus on his desire in using agricultural waste in a sustainable and intelligent way to make a product that will, in turn, help design better solutions for consumers. He will describe what Curran is, how it’s made and its wide variety of solutions. He will then talk about Curran’s key “impact solutions” of which fibre packaging is one. CKG will then introduce (ALB).
ALB will describe the need to move away from plastic packaging and outline the problems he has seen in finding new solutions. He will describe options in sustainable materials and different considerations that brands, scientists, converters and others are facing to solve problems with sustainable barrier packaging for “challenging” products. He will discuss the importance and complexities of WVTR, OTR, water and grease barrier on fibre-based materials and what is needed to help solve these problems. He will then end on a hopeful note introducing some work his team has done to solve some of these problems.

The presentation will show, how a joint development involving several industry players along the value chain achieved the design of a circular cosmetics packaging, by incorporating full life cycle thinking in each development step, to create a new standard for the industry. 
The aim of the collaboration was to design a next generation packaging solution that enables waste recyclers to manufacture cleaner high-value material out of given waste input streams. These recycled materials can find their way back into high-value applications (e.g. bottle2bottle) and allow brand owners to manufacture high-value cosmetic products that match consumer expectations. 
The presentation will not only reveal the developed next generation packaging solution, but also show how achieving circularity needs a complete shift in designing product packaging and packaging raw materials, considering recycling and packaging end-of-life. Incorporating this system thinking in the development phase, requires a new mind set and openness amongst the partners – challenges and opportunities of such a collaboration will be shared.