Clean living: Dow and Liby combine on China’s first fully recyclable laundry pods
11 Nov 2020 --- China-based laundry brand Liby is adopting Dow’s Innate TF PE Resins for Tenter Frame Biaxial Orientation (TF-BOPE) to enable recyclability in its new laundry pods. Packaging manufacturer Fujian Kaida is designing the laundry pods using the TF-BOPE material.
Liby’s previous structure consisted of a PET-PET-PE triple-layer, swapped out for two layers of BOPE/PE to ensure the end-product is completely recyclable.
“Dow’s Innate TF-BOPE aims to address the global industry’s need for a high-performing, convenient and recyclable packaging material,” EJ Liu, marketing manager of packaging and specialty plastics, Dow Asia Pacific, tells PackagingInsights.
“However, this alone is not a solution to ensure that used packaging does not end up in landfills. It is important for key stakeholders across the value chain – consumers, brand owners, converters, waste management – to collaborate and prevent plastic waste from entering our environment.”
Production challenges
In China, there are three types of laundry products: powder, liquid and pod. Laundry product flexible packaging is typically designed with non-recyclable PET/PE or nylon/PE.
“The laundry packaging industry in China is advancing toward a circular economy of plastics to reduce plastics waste and promote the use of recyclable packaging,” Liu explains.
Machine convertibility is the biggest production challenge in moving to a new structure with PE as the printing layer.
On-pack QR codes redirect users to Liby’s webpage on Tmall, providing consumer education on sustainability.“This is because raw material suppliers, converters and brand owners need to work together to ensure that the machines are compatible with their products,” Liu continues.
“A joint effort in respect of investments, studies and tests is required to determine the process conditions and operational adjustments needed for the machines.”
On-pack recyclability labels
Consumers may notice a new, glossy packaging with a green logo indicating recyclability on Liby’s laundry pods. One of the reasons Liby selected Dow’s Innate TF-BOPE was the end-product’s excellent optics for stand-up shelf appeal, and touch and feel.
Additionally, an on-pack QR code redirects users to Liby’s webpage on Tmall, providing “consumer education on sustainability,” says Dow.
Innova Market Insights crowned “The Language of Environmental Sustainability” as its top packaging trend for 2020. FMCG brands are increasingly finding a competitive advantage in more prominent on-pack communication of their packaging’s environmental sustainability credentials.
Government intervention
The collaboration is touted as a significant step toward minimizing laundry products’ environmental impact for millions of households.
“This is especially timely with the government’s push towards a circular economy by announcing new rules on the limitations and ban of using plastic products,” notes Liu.
In January, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment jointly issued a guideline titled “Opinions on Further Strengthening the Treatment of Plastic Pollution.”
The guideline’s main objectives are to significantly reduce disposable plastic products in the e-commerce, express delivery, and takeaway sectors by 2022.
The first fully recyclable laundry pods are available on Liby’s Tmall e-commerce shop.By 2025, China is also aiming to establish a basic management system for the production, distribution, consumption, recycling and disposal of plastic products as well as forming a multi-party co-governance system.
“The proposal was also released by the Guangdong Provincial Development and Reform Commission on August 21 on a provincial level in Guangdong, where Liby is headquartered,” adds Liu.
All eyes on 2025
The packaging industry is ramping up efforts to redesign and promote reusable or recyclable packaging applications.
Dow is pursuing closed-loop solutions by enabling 100 percent of its products sold into packaging applications to be reusable or recyclable by 2035, including Innate TF-BOPE resins.
“Much of the global economy is built on a make-use-dispose paradigm. Shifting from that to a more circular world is a great challenge, especially in developing regions where consumer access to products has grown exponentially, while waste and recycling infrastructure has not,” Liu adds.
Solving this problem will require value chain partners – from raw materials suppliers, through brands, retailers, consumers and waste management companies – to collaborate and revolutionize consumers’ relationship with products.
Dow views 2035 as a “more realistic target” to close the loop as many of Dow’s customers are small and mid-sized businesses and market penetration takes time. “At Dow, our goal is not only to help major brands be more recyclable but empower the whole packaging industry to be more recyclable.”
The US multinational chemical company's seven targets for 2025 include “delivering breakthrough innovations,” “valuing nature” and “advancing a circular economy.”
By Anni Schleicher
