MSU School of Packaging to lead US end-of-life center to slash waste and propel circularity

Michigan State University (MSU) has secured a five-year grant from the US National Science Foundation (NSF) to open a Center for Plastic, Paper, and Hybrid Packaging End-of-Life Solutions (C3PS). The center aims to tackle persistent plastic waste and plastic-coated paper waste challenges through collaborations among industry innovators, academic teams, and government leaders.

“MSU has the world’s biggest and top-ranked school of packaging, and its unique industry partnerships set our researchers apart,” says Kevin M. Guskiewicz, president at MSU. “The MSU School of Packaging (SoP) has a reputation for excellence, and this center will further solidify its position as the go-to place for solving the packaging industry’s most pressing problems.”

C3PS aims to address packaging-related end-of-life issues through precompetitive research to “strengthen US manufacturers on the global stage.”

The C3PS is the NSF’s first Industry-University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC) to conduct precompetitive research through collaboration between industry, academic teams, and government leaders.

The three primary objectives of the IUCRC are:

• Conduct high-impact research in packaging to address the shared needs of companies of various sizes.
• Strengthen US global leadership in the advancement of innovative packaging technology.
• Develop a highly skilled workforce in the manufacturing sector.

Cradle-to-cradle packaging

The C3PS will host professors from eight US universities, including MSU and Western Michigan University, under the directorship of Muhammad Rabnawaz, an associate professor at MSU’s SoP.

Muhammad Rabnawaz, associate professor at MSU’s SoP, in-charge of the C3PS (Image credit: MSU).“C3PS seeks to advance the science and engineering of ‘cradle-to-cradle’ packaging, where plastic, paper, and hybrid packaging materials are designed to integrate with their eventual disposal systems,” says Rabnawaz. 

He says that C3PS researchers envision a circular packaging economy that builds such thinking into the manufacturing process so that packaging materials are not discarded but reused, recycled, or biodegraded. 

“By advancing new material development and disposal systems, C3PS will enable upstream and downstream innovations that the US industry can scale and adapt.”. 

MSU says that the two key areas of research that the C3PS will focus on are the development of “safe, zero-waste plastic packaging solutions” and “safe, recyclable, and biodegradable paper and paper-plastic hybrid materials.”

Regarding plastic, researchers set out to design recyclable and biodegradable plastics for the packaging industry while working to create more efficient recycling technologies and cost-effective methods to reduce plastic waste.

The research will also focus on developing recyclable paper-plastic hybrids and other “consumer-friendly” recyclable paper additives. It furthermore aims to boost circularity by improving recycling methods for such materials.

A collaborative approach

Overall, the C3PS plans to involve 24 cross-disciplinary faculty members from eight US universities, connecting experts in packaging, materials science, AI and predictive modeling, biodegradation, manufacturing, recycling, regulatory science, and social sciences. 

Matt Daum, interim dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (Image credit: MSU).The center will train graduate and undergraduate students from the universities to create “future packaging professionals” and fill “in-demand” job placements in the industry. 

The center is also seeking advice from global experts on how to ensure its pre-competitive research gains global influence. 

Matt Daum, interim dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, comments: “The SoP is already a hub for industry partnerships, and this center is going to be a destination for researchers and future leaders in the field.”

“It’s a milestone that required two years of effort on the part of the center leadership team: assembling a team, securing industry funding partners, and obtaining the NSF grant to initiate the center.”

Laura Bix, interim director of MSU SoP, adds: “This C3PS is an exciting inflection point, not only for the SoP but also for the discipline of packaging.”

“Although interdisciplinary collaboration and engagement with external stakeholders has long been a strength for the SoP, the recognition and support of NSF will take these relationships and the visibility of their results to a whole new level.”