The latest developments in safe and sustainable chemicals, new materials, fuels, and more.
As we see more and more legislation aimed at improving both recyclability and safety of packaging, it is best to first understand your company’s baseline in sustainable packaging. Then, there are a growing number of tools designed to help companies keep track of and meet these evolving requirements.
The future of sustainable packaging and design lies in our ability to do most of the important work in a digital space. Manufacturers will be left behind if they fail to embrace tools such as digital twins, 3D product and packaging visualization, and consumer packaging buyback.
While not every company is equipped or positioned to follow its products through their entire lifecycle, there are a few ways companies can think about participating at individual or multiple points in the circular cycle.
Cross-Posted from Redefining Sustainable Seafood for the Future. Since January, Bumble Bee has switched to using cardboard, instead of plastic film, to wrap all of its products. It’s just one machine, and one company; but the impact is significant — the elimination of an estimated 23M pieces of plastic waste per year.
The Institute’s work includes education and cross-sector partnerships to reduce harmful chemicals in products. We spoke with Senior Scientist Tom Bruton, PhD to learn more about the organization’s history, cross-sector collaborative efforts and focus in the midst of a global pandemic.
Cross-Posted from Supply Chain. Brands committed to increasing sustainability by putting ocean plastic to good use deserve the infrastructure and data they need to verify their products and meet the standards that consumers demand.
Cross-Posted from The Next Economy. The Swiss company now has the funds to take its sustainability ethos to the next level — with the launch of a potentially game-changing, truly circular shoe and long-awaited subscription service.
In 2019, WestRock’s answer to a recyclable hot cup was named a winner of the NextGen Cup challenge. Here, we go behind the scenes of developing this innovative barrier technology and hear what’s next for the holy grail of the easily recycled hot cup.
Cross-Posted from Marketing and Comms. New platform from Break Free from Plastic explores the hardest-hit frontline communities in the world, from India to Ohio. After hearing each story, viewers can choose to view another location, or take actions designed to make local and global impact.
Cross-Posted from From Purpose to Action: Building a Sustainable Future Together. Disasters such as the aftermath of the February 2021 ice storm that left millions of Texans without running water lay bare the urgent need for updated utility infrastructure across the US. This would involve repairing and replacing hundreds of thousands of miles of water piping — but what should be used in their place?
Driscoll’s leads the produce industry in increasing the circularity of packaging and landfill diversion of agricultural plastics. It’s the first berry company to make public commitments and inject serious funding into innovation — with a goal to create economies of scale.
The US Pact’s brands, retailers and materials manufacturers are seek to develop immediate solutions to the 11 ubiquitous and unrecyclable materials — but the plastics industry is up in arms.
Cross-Posted from From Purpose to Action: Building a Sustainable Future Together. Solving the ongoing packaging conundrum demands a significant shift in how businesses think — moving from a linear to a circular model of operation to improve the amount of packaging that can be reused, recycled and returned to the value chain.
Cross-Posted from Product, Service & Design Innovation. The team at Vestolit — part of polymers, materials and infrastructure leader Orbia — worked closely with the corporate sustainability team to find modifications to plant operations that promise significant reductions in the entire enterprise’s sulphur dioxide emissions.
New cellulosic bio-coating for fresh produce greatly reduces both packaging and food waste by coating the produce with, well, produce.
Big Plastic (and Big Oil) have a five-decade lead and massive economies of scale that will take a little longer to match in terms of costs and simplicity. But working with the right partners and openness to shaking up the status quo is paying off for brands willing to put their principles and profits on equal footing.
Cross-Posted from Finance & Investment. In the textile industry, one area ripe for investment is making wet processing more sustainable. As with most pots of gold, it’s not without its challenges — but data indicate that the returns are well worth the effort. Investors keen to seize this nascent opportunity should consider three primary steps.
Cross-Posted from Organizational Change. “Sustainability is best played together. It's validating to see what we started and see it grow first across the other teams in our plant, and eventually across Lubrizol.” — Kalli Stull
Cross-Posted from From Purpose to Action: Building a Sustainable Future Together. Today, Dow considers its sustainability strategy and business strategy to be one and the same; employees understand that the two can no longer be separate. But, as Global Sustainability Director Haley Lowry explains, this didn’t happen overnight.
Cross-Posted from Waste Not. AZEK’s FULL-CIRCLE PVC Recycling program helped it collect approximately 400M pounds of recycled product for reuse in 2020 — with the hope that this entire value-chain approach can disrupt the plastic waste paradigm meaningfully, as AZEK continues to scale up collection and processing.