Sustainability

• CalRecycle on Thursday shared multiple updates toward implementing its 2022 extended producer responsibility for packaging law. The agency published draft rules as well as a covered materials category list of potential categories regulated by SB 54.

Giant cardboard boxes, puffy plastic air pillows, Styrofoam, packing peanuts, polystyrene bags, and plastic wrap. Consider, too, what’s discarded from consumables: tray liners, clamshells, egg and milk cartons, and plastic soda bottles, to name a few. 

The new packaging with be implemented on Riman’s IncellDerm Active Cream EX, Dermatology First Package Booster EX, and Vieton Oil Mist products, which alone account for 5.4 million units sold annually. After this successful switch, the company said it plans to gradually expand the use of this eco-friendly technology to the rest of its product lines. 

Utilizing Frugalpac's Frugal Bottles, crafted from 94% recycled paperboard with a food-grade pouch housing the wine, Aldi introduces the UK's first supermarket own-brand paper wine bottles. These innovative bottles are fully recyclable and weigh five times less than standard glass bottles.

Eco-Products® today announced an innovative new product line designed to make it easier for consumers, composters, and the entire foodservice value chain to differentiate between compostable and non-compostable products.

All cups, lids, containers and cutlery in the new Veridian™ line include the word "Compostable," display the BPI Certification Mark signifying that the material is compostable, and feature green or brown identification elements like tinting and striping that further help distinguish them from their non-compostable counterparts.

The choice between biobased, biodegradable materials and recycled alternatives has thus far presented a dilemma. With Luminy® PLA bioplastics technology, this compromise is no longer necessary. Today, recycled biodegradable biopolymers, such as rPLA, stand as a commercially viable option, boasting a quality on par with virgin materials.

Ericsson joined forces with Deutsche Telekom of Germany and Swisscom of Switzerland to conduct initial tests of the new recyclable packaging solution. The project's primary objective is to offer a more sustainable packaging option and maintain the high structural integrity necessary for safeguarding heavy-duty electronic products during the shipping process.

The company says the ACP-722 RRP offers one of the smallest footprints currently available, being up to 50% smaller than equivalent casepacker models.

The single directional flow design produces a ‘lean and compact’ line layout which can also accommodate twin lines, with top speed of 20 cases per minute.

Key to the machine’s small size is the combination of case infeed and alignment, bag sorting and packing as well as case closing and sealing in one single compact unit, removing the need for additional conveyors.

Lego has stopped a project to make bricks from recycled drinks bottles instead of oil-based plastic, saying it would have led to higher carbon emissions over the product’s lifetime.

The move, first reported by the Financial Times, followed efforts by the world’s largest toymaker to research more sustainable materials, as part of a wave of companies reassessing their contribution to global emissions as the climate crisis hits.

Spokane, Washington-based Clearwater Paper Corp., has announced a collaboration with Chicago-based specialty film manufacturer Charter Next Generation (CNG) for an early-to-market initiative to include advanced recycled polyethylene (PE) in Clearwater’s private label tissue packaging offerings. Clearwater says the purchase of this material in the place of traditional resins helps give new life to some plastics otherwise headed to landfills.