New International Packaging Standards
Stockholm, Sweden — Experts from 15 countries met in late Decmeber to begin developing standards to cover environmental issues related to packaging such as reuse, recycling and composting.
About 70 delegates from China, Japan, Korea and 11 European countries are meeting in Sweden for the first gathering for the SC4 Packaging and Environment committee. The group is part of the International Standards Organization’s (ISO) Technical Committee 122, which is responsible for all packaging standards.
Source reduction, reuse, recycling, energy recovery, chemical recovery, composting and biodegrading are among the criteria, which is expected to be in place by mid 2012.
Kraft loses 150 million pounds 2 years early
Northfield, IL — Kraft Foods has met its goal to reduce its packaging by 150 million pounds two years ahead of schedule with a variety of lightweighting and material replacement efforts.
Reductions include:
~ Oscar Mayer Deli Creations packaging comes with 30 percent less paperboard, making it smaller and taking up less shelf space. The change is expected to cut out 1.2 million pounds of paperboard a year.
~ The packaging for Oreo Cakesters was reduced by 12 percent and now uses 100 percent recycled paperboard.
~ Packaging layers were removed from Milka chocolate bars in Europe (a change that will also be used in Latin America), cutting the product’s weight by 60 percent less weight and eliminating 5.7 million pounds of packaging a year.
~ A redesign of Kraft salad dressing bottles in Australia is expected to reduce their packaging by 100,000 pounds of plastic a year.
~ A redesign to the zipper on Kraft Natural Cheese bags has eliminated more than 1 million pounds of material a year.
~ Nabob have been replaced with composite paperboard, which weights 30 percent less, contains 50 percent recycled content and reduces packaging needs by 8.5 million pounds a year.
New innovators for 2009
Coca-Cola announced it developed a bottle made with 30 percent plant derivatives, intended for use initially for bottled waters. The company says the bioplastic container can be recycled through typical recycling systems without contaminating other plastics. Coke says it wants to make bottles with 100 percent plant materials eventually, and is eyeing wood chips, corn stover and wheat stalks as possible bottle materials.
Bacardi Cuts Emissions by 20K Tonnes, KPMG Reports 7 Percent Drop
Dell started shipping two of its products padded with bamboo cushioning, a part of the company’s broad plan to reduce its packaging while using more recyclable material.
Amazon.com launched a private label brand called AmazonBasics, shipped in what it calls Frustration-Free Packaging: minimal, easy-to-open and recyclable. Kraft Foods UK introduced resealable plastic coffee packs for its Kenco brand that are 97 percent lighter than their glass counterparts and require 81 percent less energy to manufacture.
Frito-Lay’s Sun Chips were relaunched in packaging made with 33 percent polylactic acid, a corn-based biopolymer.
Aramark introduced a reusable takeout food container for college cafeterias, which the company says can divert as many as 2 million disposables from landfills in a single school year. In a similar vein, a collaboration between packaging manufacturer Direct Pack and recycler Global PET has resulted in the Bottle Box, the first 100 percent post-consumer plastic take-out packaging. Foodservice product providers Solo Cup and StalkMarket Products each released compostable paper cups for use with hot liquids.
Replacing Tangible Value with Intangible Value
The possibilities of creating value by producing less.
The True Story of ‘Stuff’
Want an idea of what’s really involved in the cheap little things you buy? Ever wonder how a radio can cost only $20 when it’s materials are sourced, shipped and manufactured overseas and then shipped to North America?
This is the best video you’ll watch this year. Visit the Story of Stuff Site to see their other videos.
Life Cycles at a Glance
Anyone else confused by the hairball of recycling symbols and terms?
Download this Quick Guide for your home or office.
