Sustainability

Yamaha Motor Co. has announced its plans to incorporate low-carbon, recycled steel sheets in the packaging frames used for shipping motorcycles. This initiative, set to commence in October 2024, represents a significant stride towards reducing the company's carbon footprint and advancing its commitment to environmental sustainability.

The service, which can be broken down into several phases, begins with an in-depth audit of the container production process to accurately assess its true environmental impact, then offers expert support to significantly and rapidly reduce the consumption associated with PET containers and blow moulding. 

A pressing need to reduce consumption 

Ardagh Glass Packaging Partners with Hernö Gin to Produce Sustainable Lightweight Bottles

Ardagh Glass Packaging-Europe (AGP-Europe), a division of Ardagh Group, has collaborated with premium gin brand Hernö Gin to create a new lightweight 500ml glass bottle, marking a significant step in sustainability and innovation. The new bottle, which features an upgraded graphic profile, is the first bespoke bottle designed specifically for Hernö Gin and was produced and decorated at AGP-Europe's Limmared facility in Sweden.

The start-ups will work with Amazon in the UK, Denmark, France, Germany, and Spain to test new ways to recycle electronic waste, innovative packaging methods, ground-breaking building materials, and using artificial intelligence (AI) to improve energy efficiency. The pilots will vary in both duration and scope depending on the challenge that is being addressed, with the opportunity for wider partnerships on completion.

Wishcycling—the act of putting packaging in recycling bins and hoping for the best, rather than knowing it's recyclable—is something households are doing due to confusing product labels and differing recycling facilities around the country, experts warn.

The academics behind Lancaster University's Plastic Packaging in People's Lives (PPiPL) project have been working hand-in-hand with supermarkets, businesses, charities and waste management companies for the last 3.5 years to explore the ins and outs of how the UK thinks and acts when it comes to plastic food packaging.

The project aligns with the National Framework for Recycled Content Traceability (NFRCT) and aims to offer trust and transparency of Australian recycled content for end users while automating data capture and reporting.

The NFRCT, released in December 2023, is a voluntary national framework for recycled content traceability. This guideline aims to enhance trust in recycled materials by helping businesses collect and share information, ensuring clear and consistent traceability rules for all recycled content products in Australia.

BASF, Endress+Hauser, TechnoCompound, and the German Universities of Bayreuth and Jena have partnered to study ways to improve the mechanical recycling of plastics. The project, called SpecRek, is being partially funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with the goal of reliably and precisely identifying the composition of plastic waste during the recycling process to improve the quality of recycled plastics.

Duracell’s iconic copper-topped batteries are hitting Walmart shelves in new packaging. Individual packs of batteries are now packaged in curbside recyclable, all-cartonboard, paper-blisters that replace the legacy format of thermoformed plastic blisters affixed to cardstock backing.