plastic packaging

The Belgian fresh produce cooperative custom made the tool in order to better understand the impact of available packaging and help boost its sustainability credentials. The tool enables users to assess a range of factors involved in packaging, including materials, source, production method, use of inputs such as water and energy, and the impact of transport.

Marks & Spencer (M&S), Morrisons, Ocado and Waitrose have teamed up alongside the supply chain solutions company CHEP for a scheme run by Unpackaged, a company that provides refill stations for several retailers.

Work by the Refill Coalition aims to reimagine how key food staples such as pasta and grains, and household products, are supplied. This marks the first step in developing a worldwide standard for plastic-free food distribution from the supplier to a consumer’s cupboard.

Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has notified the Guidelines on Extended Producers Responsibility on plastic packaging under Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016. The guidelines on extended producer responsibility coupled with prohibition of identified single use plastic items, which have low utility and high littering potential, with effect from 1^st July 2022, are important steps for reducing pollution caused due to littered plastic waste in the country.

A PepsiCo spokesperson told letsrecycle.com that moving to mono-materials would make their crisp packets “easier to recycle”.

The company called on the government to speed up its timeline for flexible plastic like crisp packets to be mandated as part of kerbside recycling, saying they should be collected along with the rest of the core list of materials from 2023.

This will open up new possibilities for recycling post-industrial printed film waste and potential for zero-waste production along the value chain of PP-based packag- ing for packaging manufacturers.

Alternative to non-food packaging made from virgin material

Researchers at Empa, a Swiss materials research organisation, have developed a protective cellulose coating for fruit and vegetables. The coating is made from pomace, a substance that can be extracted from fruit and vegetable peels.

Empa researchers developed the coating together with the retailer Lidl Switzerland. The coating can be applied to fruit and vegetables to extend their shelf life.

In-depth research is being co-funded with Innovate UK and will closely follow consumers as they plan at home, engage in-store, and decant and sore products back at home.