Sustainable is Good | Where design, lifestyle and packaging meet

Sonoco Produces More Sustainable Packaging for Heinz Baby Formula

Sonoco (SON), a North Carolina-based packaging company, makers of Target's new innovative cereal packaging have produced similar improved packaging for a Heinz product.

Sonoco's new rigid paperboard packaging was used for Heinz's Nurture Growing Baby Follow-on Milk product, available in the UK. The rigid paperboard can Heinz recently used to re-launch the product makes portion control and preparation easy and protects the product inside.

Made from two layers of recycled paperboard that are spiral wound and a high-barrier liner, the cans lock out moisture and oxygen that could compromise the nutritional integrity of the powdered infant formula. They also keep the powdered product from clumping so that it quickly dissolves when it's time to prepare a bottle.

The rigid paperboard can has other parent-friendly features, including a Sonoco-supplied Sealed Safe peelable membrane closure with a metal rim seamed onto the can's end and an easy-grip ring pull that opens the can easily.

That connection with parents was very important in the selection of the new package, says Christina Bouzala, H.J. Heinz Company. "Heinz Nurture Follow-on Milk powdered infant formula is a new brand, with a new formulation, and replaces Farley's Follow-on Milk product. With this important launch, we wanted a premium package that would make preparing baby's milk easier for our customers. The new Sealed-Safe opening system is much easier to open, while the custom overcap and scoop help ensure parents use the right amount of formula and provide their babies with proper nutrition."

Alan Kirby, U.K. sales director for Sonoco, says the company welcomed the challenge from Heinz to deliver a package that meets so many needs. "We're pleased to supply Heinz with a premium package that meets its requirements--easy to use, adds value through performance
and has shelf appeal."

"More and more companies around the world are choosing to package powdered infant formula in rigid paperboard cans as a cost-effective and more sustainable alternative," says Srinivas Nomula, Sonoco market segment manager."

Treepac Sustainable Packaging for Shipping

Treepac is a new design concept for solving the problem of single use shipping and mailing packages.  The concept was devised by Boston-based design firm Essential Design.

As anyone in business or who is a consumer that buys products online knows shipping packages generates a tremendous amount of waste.  Some of this paper-based packaging, corrugated and other types of mailers can be reused but often times cannot or simply isn't.

Treepac is a reusable shipping container intended to replace cardboard boxes. The structure is made entirely of the sustainable wood-based polymer cellulose acetate.

Treepac is used like cardboard packaging but is designed to enable and encourage people and companies to improve their environmental footprint. The more times each pack is used, the greater its positive effect on the environment.

“When we examined our everyday use of cardboard, we became aware of the quantity of packaging materials we should recycle, appalled at the amount of material we couldn’t, and frustrated by an inability to reuse most of it,” said Design Researcher Dave Siedzik. “We were disheartened that recycling cardboard is a completely inefficient process.”

The Treepac concept mirrors the good features of cardboard boxes while adding new attributes that lower the overall environmental impact of packaging.

Essential researchers, designers and engineers estimate that a recycled cardboard box can have up to eight uses but must be reconstituted in an energy-draining production facility each time.

The Treepac, on the other hand, can be reused again and again thanks to its more durable construction and design. 

Essential Design won a Silver IDEA (International Design Excellence Award) Award in the Ecodesign category for their design of Treepac.

Sustainable is Good Back to School Giveaway

As students all over the country are getting ready to go back to school or in some cases are already back in school we've put together a great sustainable back to school giveaway. 

This giveaway is for students of all kinds: college, high school, continuing ed adults, and K-8 (parents please submit entry on behalf of your student).

Sustainable is Good is giving away two (2) fantastic sustainable bags from act2 GreenSmart.  These bags are brand new for 2008 and just came out on the market.  The bags are made from 100% recycled plastic bottles rPET plastic.  They are stylish and a great way to carry all your stuff around. 

The giveaway is for two bags one large bag - the act2 GreenSmart Horizontal Messenger bag in the color Stone (a very nice gray) and one smaller bag, the Shoulder Pouch bag in Olive (a very nice green color).

act2 GreenSmart is a California-based company who makes a variety of bags from rPET plastic.  The smaller Shoulder Pouch bag uses 5 16oz PET plastic bottles to make and its production saves over 3400 btu or 1kWh of energy which is enough to power a laptop computer for 40 hours.  The larger Horizontal Messenger bag uses 30 16oz PET plastic bottles to make and saves over 20,000 but or 5.9 kWh of energy, enough to power a laptop computer for 236 hours!

For more information on act2 GreenSmart bags visit their website.

How to enter

The contest is open to students only as described above.  Email us with the subject "Giveaway" and tell us the school or college you attend and tell us five (5) green products you find interesting or like to use.  Thats it. We'll pick a winner from the entries.

The contest runs until September 2nd.  We'll contact the winner by email and publish the winner's list on Sustainable is Good.

Speedo Launches Sustainable Product Packaging

The Beijing Olympic Games are in full swing and popular swimwear maker Speedo has launched a new range of eco-friendly packaging for its goggles and headwear collection.

Speedo makes swimwear and related products for the worlds best swimmers as well as consumers worldwide.  Top swimmers like Michael Phelps have been prominently featured wearing Speedo products during the Olympic Games all last week.

With all the attention on swimming over the last few months, the timing is great for Speedo introduction of newly designed more eco-friendly packaging.  The company first announced the new packaging last month and it is now just beginning to become available.

Speedo's new packaging, which also includes improved product explanation and visibility and better product segmentation, uses recyclable cardboard sourced from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified well-managed forests.

The environmentally-friendly advances in Speedo packaging continue on to the goggles and headwear themselves; all products are 100% PVC free.

All goggle packaging is made from recyclable materials, with reusable goggle pouches partially constructed from swimsuit fabric cut offs.

According to Speedo, they have cut 118 tons of PVC and 316 tons of plastic from the creation of  their equipment packaging.

Speedo is the only swim product manufacturer to cease use of plastic in its packaging construction.

Adding to the eco-credibility of the products and packaging, visibility, product access and retailer merchandising flexibility was integral in Speedo’s redesign process.

All products were broken down into color-coded segments for easy retailer display and the new packaging includes a hi-resolution product image on front of pack. This ensures the packaging remains neat and tidy in-store, should the customer remove the goggle to try it on.

London-based branding and packaging design firm R Design created Speedo's new eco-friendly packaging.

The new packaging is available exclusively at John Lewis stores in the UK beginning this month and by 2009 should be available at other retailers.

PETA Targets Hormel and Tyson Packaging for Greenhouse Gas Impact Info

PETA, which owns 100 shares of meatpacking giant Hormel Foods as part of its corporate responsibility project, has submitted a shareholder resolution calling on the Austin, Minn.-based company to include information on all of its meat packages about the greenhouse-gas "footprint" that the meat passes on to consumers.

The group points out that shoppers are increasingly concerned about global warming and that meat production is the leading cause of greenhouse-gas emissions.  They are turning to Hormel's packaging for the inclusion of disclosure information on the greenhouse-gas impact their products have.

According to PETA, some food companies have already begun printing greenhouse-gas emissions levels per serving on product labels--but Hormel is not among them.

The animal rights group's focus on packaging indicates the importance packaging plays in consumers buying decisions as well as the increase in the importance consumers place on greener more eco-friendly product options.

The resolution represents a new tactic in PETA's international campaign against factory farming.

The group cites the following as evidence about meat's devastating impact on the environment:

U.N. scientists have determined that raising animals for food generates more greenhouse-gas emissions than all the cars, SUVs, trucks, and planes in the world combined.

Researchers at the University of Chicago have determined that switching to a vegan diet is more effective in countering global warming than switching from a standard car to a Toyota Prius.

PETA will file an identical resolution with meat giant Tyson Foods later this week.

The two resolutions mark an interesting new approach in providing consumer additional information on product packaging.

GreenBottle Milk Packaging Debuts in UK

The latest in the ongoing innovations for eco-friendly milk packaging bring us to the UK and a product called GreenBottle.

GreenBottle is a new type of packaging designed for liquids and is made from 91% recycled material, primarily from waste office paper and is 99% recyclable.

Major UK retailer ASDA (owned by Wal-Mart) announced it is offering the new packaging in one of its stores with plans to expand to fourteen more stores in the near future and possibly nationwide.

Martin Myerscough, GreenBottle's designer created the product to replace plastic bottles.

The packaging consists of a pulped recycled cardboard outer similar to what is used to make egg cartons and a corn-based bioplastic bag liner.

The inner liner takes up less than .5% of the space of a plastic bottle if disposed of in a landfill and will biodegrade in about six weeks.

After the milk is gone, the bioplastic bag can be removed and composted/disposed of, and the outer shell can be recycled or composted.

Myerscough told Lets Recycle, "The plastic part could be composted, but it is a very thin bag.  The cardboard could go in a paper or green waste collection and then people who don't recycle can put it all into the general waste as it will biodegrade."

Chris Brown, Head of Ethical and Sustainable Sourcing at ASDA, said, “Milk is one of our highest selling products, and as such, we have a responsibility to develop alternative packaging making it easier for our customers to go green and to help them recycle at home."

Brown also addressed another positive of GreenBottle, no spillage.  “Also, unlike products that are being trialled by other retailers such as the pouch, this milk bottle is robust, practical and fit for purpose, meaning there is no danger of spilled milk at breakfast time.”

Consumer reaction GreenBottle in initial milk packaging trials at ASDA last year was highly positive.  It will be interesting to see how this latest product launch will go and it will surely have an impact on GreenBottle's future use and application.

Additional Packaging Uses for GreenBottle beyond Milk

We may see GreenBottles used for other types of packaging including; juices, smoothies, yogurt drinks, water, shampoos, hand creams, liquid detergents, engine oils and more. 

The 11th Hour Eco Friendly DVD Packaging Differs Between USA and Europe

Packaging for Leonardo DiCaprio's documentary The 11th Hour needed to be in line with the film's strong eco-message.  The films producer Warner Bros was sensitive to not having the packaging conflict with the ethical message of the film whether it was sold in the US or European market.

As is not uncommon in the entertainment industry, packaging for the 11th Hour DVD was handled by different companies for the US and European markets. 

11th Hour EUROPE

St Ives Music & Multimedia in the UK created eco-friendly packaging for European market. The company is a leading supplier of print, packaging and promotional materials to the European home entertainment industry from its manufacturing sites in the UK and Holland.

St Ives chose chipboard made from 100% post-consumer waste supplied by Smurfit Kappa to give the outer casing a natural look.

Dutch firm PaperFoam provided the biodegradable DVD tray made from paper, cornstarch and potato.

St Ives Music & Multimedia special projects manager Martin Still said: "It was critical that the packaging for this documentary reflected the gravity of the subject matter, so making the DVD tray and case 100% biodegradable was the most significant way of achieving this.  As this approach had never been used for such a high-profile film, we were really excited to be involved in designing and printing such an innovative product."

As the tray was lighter than its plastic equivalent, the outer casing was upgraded to double thickness to give the box a more solid structure.

The whole project was developed, trialled and tested in-house at St Ives' Crayford design studio, where the team also created an envelope lock closure on the back of the DVD box that simply folds into the body of the packaging. All components are recyclable apart from the disc.

St Ives printed The 11th Hour pack using 6-color presses and eco-friendly, vegetable-based inks.

11th Hour USA

Interestingly much less is known about the packaging of the US market version of 11th Hour, despite the fact it has been available since April. 

The US release of the DVD was back in April before Earth Day.  Sustainable is Good can confirm Univenture produced the "wrapper" for the DVD packaging in the US market. 

A Univenture spokeswoman told Sustainable is Good, "Univenture was involved in the 11th Hour packaging for Warner Bros.  Univenture provided the “wrapper” to enclose the package for retail purposes.  Univenture’s EnvyPak technology was used for converting EarthFirst PLA film, a sustainable and renewable bio based film, to make the wrapper."

Sustainable is Good has not been able to confirm who produced the paperboard tray for the US release of the DVD. 

The two main players in the US eco-friendly DVD packaging market are IP's Shorewood Packaging who make REPAK in the US (read our recent profile) and Napco (past coverage).  We know the DVD tray was made from some type of recyclable "biodegradable" material. 

Sustainable is Good has repeatedly contacted Warner Bros. for information on the packaging but has not received a response from the company.

Amazon.com Excessive Packaging: Another example

A Sustainable is Good reader contacted us this week with another instance of excessive packaging from Amazon.com.  The reader works in the education industry and ordered ten (10) children's books, all the same title to be delivered to her office. 

The books arrived in 10 separate large boxes all with multiple inflatable plastic air pouches.  To make matters worse, the books Amazon sent were not the correct books. 

The reader packed all the books up into one box and returned them to Amazon.com.

Many of these examples of excessive packaging occur because of issues with communication and packaging logistics. 

Ordering systems may process orders of multiple items individually and generate packaging as if the orders were going to multiple locations.  The prevention of excessive packaging is an area where shippers need to rely on human employees.

The results of excessive packaging incidents have a negative effect on consumers and generate a significant amount of unnecessary waste.

Read more stories on Excessive Packaging on Sustainable is Good

Readers:  Contact us with any examples of excessive packaging.

Method Switches Lines to 100% Post Consumer Recycled Packaging

San Francisco based Method has converted three of its U.S. product lines covering nine SKUs to 100% post consumer recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) bottles from Amcor PET Packaging. 

The conversions, which affect 28, 25 and 12 ounce bottles, are thought to represent the first 100% post consumer recycled (PCR) applications in the United States for household cleaning products. The company had previously been using 100% virgin PET resin for these bottles.

By converting to 100% PCR on the 28-ounce bottle the carbon footprint was reduced by a significant 60 percent or 63.14 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) per thousand containers produced.  When the same bottle was produced in virgin PET, emissions were 104.67 kg CO2e per thousand.

Method Products was founded in 1999 on a strong environmental platform which includes the use of biodegradable ingredients in its formulations and “most readily” recyclable packaging for its containers.  The introduction of Method’s 100% PCR bottles, once again, redefines the cleaning products category with an even stronger sustainability position.

The product lines affected are method’s 28-ounce All Purpose Cleaners (lavender, pink grapefruit and cucumber) and daily shower spray (ylang ylang); 25-ounce floor cleaners (lemon ginger and wood for good), and 12-ounce surface cleaners (daily granite, stainless steel and wood for good polishes).

Method's rPET Packaging Success in the UK lead to similar development in US

“Because we had been successful with 100% PCR bottles in the U.K., we wanted to explore what could be done in the U.S.,” explains Jason Crouch, director of procurement, method.

However, unlike the European supply infrastructure which is more vertically integrated, obtaining a consistent supply of PCR flake suitable for blow molding PET bottles has not been established in the United States. 

“When method came to us last year on this project, we were hoping to get to 50% PCR content.  In our trials, we tested 10, 25, 50, 75 and 100%.  That’s when we discovered that 100% PCR content was not out of the question, but we knew we had a lot of work ahead of us before we could be confident that the bottles meeting all of the criteria could be produced at commercial rates,” says Greg Rosati, business director, personal care, Amcor.

The first challenge was finding a suitable supply source.  This meant identifying a company that could source a supply stream with the right characteristics and be able to repelletize the flake so that it could be used to produce bottles.

“Ideally, you want the original PET bottles not to have been commingled with any other plastic type.  The best source from a material purity standpoint is PET carbonated soft drink bottles that have been collected from a deposit-based program.  Second best are bottles that have been curbside collected,” Rosati says. 

“Additionally, we needed to tap into a company that could provide the desired material quality on a consistent basis and who also has the technology to create pellets from the flake that results when these bottles are ground up.”

On the processing side of things, multiple obstacles needed to be overcome.  For example, PCR has a much lower intrinsic viscosity (IV) than virgin resin.  Since the resulting PET molecular chains are shorter, Amcor had to relearn how to process the material.  Additionally, the gray and blue scale color readings had to be at a certain level or the material would not be able to produce a clear bottle.  (Five of the SKUs using 100% PCR are in clear PET bottles; colorants are used for the rest.)

“Method and Amcor engineers worked cooperatively with each other to overcome each of the material, production and performance challenges that presented themselves throughout the project,” Crouch says.

The project started last June with trials taking place between August and November.  Full scale production took place in December.  (Bottles are stretch blow molded at Amcor’s state-of-the-art Nicholasville, KY plant.) Product starting making its way onto retail shelves in February.

“Not only has this been a learning experience for both Amcor and method, but resin suppliers have also benefited. The end result is a bottle that is having a positive impact to the environment,” Crouch says.

More rPET Packaging Coming this fall from method?

Method's Katie Molinari told Sustainable is Good the company is actively working to, "increase our assortment of products made from 100% recycled plastic by this fall."  We may expect to see more method products packaged in recycled plastic coming shortly. 

Globe Guard Recycled Inflatable Air Pillows

Salazar Packaging, a distributor of packaging materials and equipment with a focus on sustainable packaging, expanded its Globe Guard line of sustainable packaging boxes by adding a new exclusive line of air pillow cushioning made from 100% recycled plastic material. 

Shippers now have an inflatable option that combines price, performance, and environmental responsibility that fits perfectly with their Globe Guard recycled boxes introduced earlier this year.

Inflatable air pillows are a proven void fill winner in terms of cost, efficiency, cleanliness, and quality. Until now, however, there has been one major drawback -- they are traditionally made with a high percentage of virgin polyethylene plastic resin.

"Since introducing our Globe Guard 100% recycled content (PCW) boxes, we have been inundated with requests for an environmentally friendly inflatable product," said company president and Sustainable is Good contributor, Dennis Salazar.

"We worked hard and long with our partner, Automated Packaging Systems (APS), to develop a 100% recycled material that would meet every performance expectation and run perfectly through their equipment."

APS is the packaging industry's leading manufacturer of packaging, bagging, and pouching systems, and is known worldwide as the inventor of Autobag bagging machines and pre-opened bags. The firm's inflatable systems are highly regarded for their simplicity, reliability, and stout construction. 

Salazar Packaging will sell Globe Guard air pillows in conjunction with the complete line of APS void fill systems.

Each air pillow is light green and imprinted with the Globe Guard logo and the words, "100% recycled" as well as the #4 plastic symbol to easily facilitate recycling.

"The environmental message is quite important," said Salazar. "Today it is critical that your eco message is clear, obvious and consistent to your customer receiving and opening your box. Our Globe Guard void fill and our Globe Guard boxes make it easy for our customers to accomplish those goals."

Inflatable air pillows offer dramatic functional advantages over other void fill materials. Besides having an extremely low unit cost, they reduce inbound and outbound transportation cost and require very little floor storage space, unlike bulky loose fill "peanuts", bubble material, and packaging foams.

Salazar observed, "When you add eco-friendly to the mix, Globe Guard just might be the perfect void fill."