A 20/20 View Of Sustainable Packaging By Cheryl Baldwin Vice President of Consulting for Pure Strategies Sustainable packaging is a keystone issue for corpo- rate sustainability. As one of the first environmental concerns companies began to tackle proactively, inter- est and efforts had notable resurgence in the last few years, partly spurred by the attention on ocean plastic. Then the pandemic hit, and the market changed — characterized by higher demand for single-use packag- es and bags, and lower availability of recycled materials When we look ahead, are we on the path to a circular and sustainable system for packaging? Shopping bags have long been a focus in sustainabil- ity — from looking at greenhouse gas impacts (paper is higher) to litter (plastic has more challenges) and significant policy action.A shift away from a focus on single-use design emerged. Studies pointed out that bags that are effectively reused can be the best envi- ronmental option. Food service and consumer goods companies also were exploring this shift to durable packages for reuse. Over one-third of the participating product and pack- aging companies reported to the New Plastics Econ- omy Global Commitment that they are testing such options.While the pandemic impacted momentum for reusables in shopping bags and food services (for var- ious reasons), it did not stop the growth of these solu- tions for consumer goods. Trailblazing Helping blaze the trail is TerraCycle’s Loop program. Consumer brands partner with Loop to offer products in a durable package that when empty, get collected in various channels, cleaned and sanitized by Loop, and then refilled by the manufacturer for another use. Such commercially cleaned reusable packages or consumer refillable packages are poised for growth, given their two-pronged benefits of hygiene and sustainability. Reusable solutions are one path of a circular econo- my, but there is far more effort to advance another cir- cular approach, recycling. Companies have more goals for designing for recycling and recovery, and increas- ing recycled content than other packaging issues. Designing recyclable packages begins with using recyclable materials. Colgate-Palmolive redesigned its toothpaste tube to be made of high density polyeth- ylene (HDPE), instead of the traditional mix of plastics and metal that is not recyclable. Another design strat- egy is to avoid mixing materials. Paper cups usually
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4 June 22, 2020 Flexo Market News
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