If you are interested in increasing your sustainability metrics and lowering your costs without changing the appearance of your packaging keep reading. Below are three idea of how to do just that.
Sustainable Calcium Carbonate Additives
Add a small percentage of calcium carbonate into your plastic packaging. Recently it has been discovered that CC is produced naturally in some bodies of water. The natural formation process has an added benefit of sequestering CO2 from the atmosphere through a photosynthesis process. The cost for the natural CC additives is lower than resin.
Bio-Based Thermoplastics
Some resin manufacturers generate bio-based thermoplastics that come from ethanol made from corn, sugar beets or sugar cane. Bio-based thermoplastics provide a positive impact on CO2 emissions because they are produced from plant based CO2 feedstocks. The price of bio-based thermoplastics is more stable compared to petroleum based equivalents.
Biodegradable/Compostable Packaging
Resin packaging can take months to hundreds of years to decompose in the landfill. One technology to make the packaging compostable is to use a polylactic acid bioplastic; PLA based packaging is usually made from the renewable resource, corn starch. Another technology is to use an oxo-degradable plastic additive. The additives are metal salts that function as a catalyst to speed up the decomposition process. The last technology is using biodegradable plastic additives. When placed in a physically active landfill these additives increase the rate of decomposition.
Source: Packaging Digest
