Please Note: This session is cancelled. The speaker will join the "The Future of Sustainable Packaging Panel: Part 1" in room E450b instead.
There’s been intense public focus on what is known as the “Pacific trash vortex,” a massive collection of mostly plastic debris funneled into a concentrated area by the currents of the North Pacific Gyre. Ocean plastic is now front and center, but it is only part of the plastic problem.
To be fair, plastic is not all bad. Plastic usage varies widely and while plastic grocery bags, water bottles and packaging materials are rightly-criticized by environmentalists as being part of the increasing volume of “single use” plastic, some plastic used in other industries can actually be the most sustainable alternative.
But today the largest market for plastic by far is packaging, and as the spotlight on plastic has grown ever more intense, brand owners are seeking ways to replace plastic packaging with renewable, biodegradable, recyclable fiber–based solutions.
The critical element here is that the functionality of the packaging cannot be sacrificed by these fiber-based solutions.
A recent study commissioned by Iggesund Paperboard and conducted by IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute compares the climate impact of different packaging materials, packaging the same goods and doing the same job/providing the same functional criteria of the packaging solution. Consideration is given to both “cradle-to-gate” and “gate-to-grave” aspects of various packaging solutions.
Given that statistics presented in the IVL study reveal the climate impact of a packaging solution can be reduced anywhere from 70% to 99% by using paperboard, the decision a company makes as to which material to use may be the one that has the single greatest climate impact.
Today, success in redesigning packaging to eliminate or reduce plastic use in favor of paperboard lies at the confluence of design innovation and fiber-based materials development.
3 Takeaways:
- Understanding the Cradle-to-cradle climate impact of material choices in packaging development
- Success stories in reducing and/or eliminating plastic in packaging
- A look at the future of the forest and bio-based alternatives