circular economy

A range of 160g chocolate boxes have been produced: Dark Heaven, Milk Heaven and Assorted Heaven. The packaging has been carefully crafted using 100% post-consumer recycled material and is fully recyclable. The clear viewing window is produced from recycled UK water bottles adding to the sustainable appeal.

David Sharples, Managing Director at Holdsworth Chocolates said:

Australians return 1.3 million pieces of soft plastic per day to REDCycle recycling bins but wrappers, cling wraps and plastic bags have been a problematic plastic to recycle.

With new legislation to phase out soft plastic exports taking effect only last week, this project highlights an innovative solution to the problem.

But an RMIT team of engineers have partnered with Victorian recycling organisations Replas, RED Group and SR Engineering to develop a concrete material made from lightweight recycled plastic.

Nationwide, food and packaging containers together account for almost 45% of landfill materials in the U.S. That’s not all takeout waste, but with the online food delivery market growing—it’s expected to be worth $200 billion by 2025—it’s easy to see how single use waste from food delivery adds up, especially during a pandemic that’s forcing more people to order in.

One aspect of Greiner Packaging’s sustainability strategy is reducing its material usage, a goal it has been pursuing for some time now. The company aims to produce packaging that exhibits the same functionality and improved recyclability when compared with previous solutions, in order to cut back on plastic from virgin materials as well as carbon emissions.

Greiner Packaging achieved a material saving of 20% for the new Greek yogurt cup, having reduced the solution’s weight by making adjustments to technical conditions in production.

“Sustainability has become a cornerstone of the Sweden–India partnership. Our countries’ shared goal of enabling and expediting a green transition is a common thread in our bilateral exchanges, joint partnerships, and business opportunities. For long-term sustainability to succeed, government, academia and industry must all contribute,” Ambassador of Sweden to India Klas Molin said at the launch event.

Eastman has announced an agreement with Ethicon, a Johnson & Johnson MedTech Company, to source Eastman Renew materials for its medical device sterile-barrier packaging. This is an important step to help reduce waste in the healthcare system and contribute to a more circular future. With this agreement, Ethicon becomes the first healthcare company to use medical-grade Eastman Renew materials in its product packaging.

Packaged consumer goods firm Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) on Tuesday announced the launch of a programme that will offer grants and mentorship to Indian tech startups working in the area of plastic waste management and circularity.

The ‘Transform Plastics Challenge’ is a joint initiative between Unilever, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), and EY, in collaboration with Social Alpha.

PepsiCo, one of the world’s largest food and beverage companies, aligned with its strategic transformation, PepsiCo Positive (pep+), which puts sustainability at the heart of the business, and with the global goal of achieving Net-Zero carbon emissions by 2040, announces use of UBQ™ material. The material, developed by the Israeli startup of the same name, will be used in the creation of a sustainable pallet that includes unsorted household waste – including organics – in its composition.

Extended User Responsibility (EPR) schemes play a substantial role in the collection, sorting and recycling of post-consumer products. The Circular Economy for Flexible Packaging (CEFLEX) project, a collaboration of over 180 European companies, associations and organisations, believes these schemes are well positioned to be a key enabler and coordinator of the circular economy.

A player committed to the circular economy and a major supplier of sustainable and recyclable packaging solutions; DS Smith France has collaborated with the Carrefour distributor to produce 3 large-format cardboard toys. Manufactured in 200,000 copies, they will be distributed from March 28 in all Carrefour brands (hypermarkets, supermarkets, and convenience stores) throughout France, as well as on Carrefour.fr.