Plastic Packaging

Key Highlights:

Amazon plans to fully remove plastic air pillows from packaging in North America by the end of the year, the company announced Thursday.

Amazon previously had announced such a plan last year, but hadn’t set a date.

The company already has replaced 95% of its plastic air pillows in North American packaging with paper filler.

GreenDot, known for its comprehensive plastic circularity solutions, has been expanding its sorting and recycling operations in Germany and has recently developed additional facilities in Austria and Italy. The group's portfolio now includes advanced recycling techniques to supply circular polymers to brands and converters.

Eastman and Sealed Air are pleased to announce the launch of a compostable,¹ lightweight tray designed as a drop-in replacement for traditional polystyrene foam trays in protein packaging that can work on existing, industrial food packaging equipment. The tray is already successfully performing in several market applications. Sealed Air introduced its CRYOVAC® brand compostable overwrap tray to the market in January.

APC partnered with produce processors to replace their current non-recyclable, multi-material laminate. The primary objective was to develop a recycle-ready package option that maintained production throughputs while resisting product puncturing due to the sharp edges of the packaged product. The package format included a pillow bag with a fin-seal produced on intermittent and continuous motion VFFS equipment at speeds up to 90 packages per minute. 

US-based Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) has expanded its recyclability recognition programme to include new packaging components.

The programme provides third-party validation that a package or packaging component’s design is compatible with the North American recycling system. This is done by confirming that the item has met the highest criteria for recyclability according to the APR Design Guide. Complete packages and all components of package design, including labels, barrier materials, dispensers, and more, are eligible for Preferred Design Recognition (PDR).