The Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC) spring event took place April 20 and 21, 2021. We have been a member of the SPC for three years running. The virtual event offered a wide array of panel discussions, interviews, educational seminars and guest speakers all geared toward some aspect of packaging and how to think about and steer towards sustainability. Our company is so thankful to the SPC for these events. They provide smaller companies like ours a pathway to changes we can make within the larger landscape of the market. I attended 6 different sessions.
Below are my notes from the sessions I attended.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA): Life Cycle Assessment is a technique to assess environmental impacts associated with various stages of a products life-cycle — sourcing, manufacturing, distribution, use and recovery. Environmental impacts such as water use, energy use, Greenhouse Gas (GHGs) emissions, mineral use, and chemical toxicity are measured and combine to provide a total impact. LCA’s can be used to compare products, materials and processes. In looking at the entire chain, LCA’s expose invisible environmental impacts.
“Embedded carbon content of any product is largely unknown to the final consumer”. Rocky Mountain Institute. LCA attempts to make it known.
LCA’s can involve an extraordinary amount of information to pool together. An industrial supply chain can have 1500 plus connections to any one product. An LCA result is only as good as the inputs data from each of these connections. Getting perfect data for each connection is impossible. Common estimates or proxy’s are used to fill gaps. ISO compliant LCAs are time consuming and very expensive.
Circular Poly Bag Pilot Project: The problem the project sought to investigate was that less than 15% of polybags are collected for recycling. A few major retailers collaborated with an extrusion partner and a manufacturer to determine if closed loop polybag to polybag circularity could be achieved. Retailers pooled their bag collections and sent them to an extruder who made new material from the recycled bags. A converter then made new bags and sent them back to the retailers.
Key to success in the pilot was the ability to “de-ink” the recycled bags at the extruder. A new technology was employed that removes inks, adhesives etc to provide for a purer extruded material. The pilot showed:
- Circularity from bags to bags could be done
- Bags could be made with 80% post consumer recycled content (other 20% was post industrial recycled content which served as a stabilizer in the structure)
- An LCA with 1/5th of environmental impact of what it would have been if the bags were made from virgin resins.
A few key takeaways to potentially scale this pilot were recognizing that sorting is key. Cleaner bails mean cleaner bags. Also, centralized collection is important .
How2Recycle Labeling: How2Recycle Labeling is a standardized labeling system that clearly communicates what to do with a package at end of life. The label offers an ideal way to
- Show a sustainable commitment
- Be transparent with the consumer
- Support a circular material flow
Materials that are disposed of correctly give all materials a better chance for another life. The labels communicate this information.
For more information, visit https://how2recycle.info/.
Applying Behavioral Science to Promote Sustainability: What people say and what people do are very different. The goal is to get people to act on their own intentions by making it an easier path to follow. It’s not about convincing people or forcing them to care more.
Decisions are either quick, easy, intuitive and sub-conscience (presented as System 1 thinking) OR they are more cognitive and well thought out (presented as System 2 thinking). The brain can only handle so much so it is constantly looking for short cuts. Shortcuts allow the brain to work on auto pilot and resort to System 1 thinking. The shortcuts tend to be more irrational. With limited bandwidth in each of our brains, System 1 thinking tends to takeover. We buy on habits, emotion and feel in an instinctual way and push rational about things like sustainability to the background.
There are two moments of truth in the life of a product: when item is bought and at disposal. The package must strive to inform the user about the package at both stages.
Nudging people toward sustainability—-tell them what we want them to do —-portion control, refill packets, recycling.
3 groups of people: Advocates (all in), Agnostics (agree but do not act) and Antagonists (actively disagree)
Focus on Agnostics: Agnostics are often the largest group and need to be helped, not convinced.
To create change, make it easy and make it incremental
Confusion is a strong micro barrier to progress towards circularity.
Resource: “The Little Book of Green Nudges” (Free at https://www.bi.team/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/LBGN-2.pdf)
The Rise of Reusables — Mapping a Path to Scale: When comparing the environmental impact of reusable shipping packages to single use plastics, there are four areas to investigate. There is a lot of variation within each area.
- Transportation to consumer and consumer reusable package back to cleaning center
- As distances grow, reusables advantages decrease
- Rate of return for package
- As non-return rate increases, reusables advantages decreases
- Centralized vrs Decentralized collection centers
- Decentralized collection sites are a better option as they offer less emissions
- Type of single use package (% of PCR)
- The higher the percentage of PCR in single use, the lower the advantage of reusables
There is no “silver bullet” — There are conditions that would better suit a reusable option.
Overall themes
- Listen
- Move faster
- Can’t do it alone
- Community
- PCR and Renewables
Thanks for reading!
– Trent Romer