Pack Tech incentivizes fishers to collect ocean plastic for customizable packaging conversions

05 Oct 2020 --- Denmark-headquartered Pack Tech has collected 4,000 metric tons of ocean plastic to create personal care packaging applications under its Ocean Waste Plastic (OWP) line.

“We established OWP in 2018 to unite people and sustainable practices to create opportunities for a better world. When supplying millions of components every year, we wanted to implement a filter at the start of our processes to make a real difference,” Simon Wishart, head of Pack Tech US, tells PackagingInsights. 

The company employs Indonesian fishers to retrieve plastic waste floating in the ocean to create customizable packaging. To qualify for the OWP logo on-pack, the packaging must contain at least 25 percent OWP measured from the total weight of the packaging.

Repurposing ocean plastic
After ocean retrieval, the plastic waste is transported to a sorting facility where it is separated by material type and color. It is then rinsed, melted and processed into pellets before finally being injected or blown into new packaging.

The company now has a range of plastics (PET, PP and HDPE) and formats on offer and is confident that interest in OWP will become significant.Click to EnlargeThe retrieved ocean plastic arrives in a compressed format that is sorted, washed, shredded and made into pellets for new packaging (Image credits: Jesper Lee Mortensen, Pack Tech).

“OWP is more expensive than standard virgin resin because of the labor-intensive collection and processing. For this reason, we are more suited to products which retail is above US$5,” notes Wishart.

“The most commonly purchased products are PP jars such as Soma and Nakai, our airless products such as AER-4/M and Nabila. We also supply many single wall bottles in PET and HDPE and supply the closure in OWP too.”

However, OWP is not suitable for tubes as it makes the flexible tube material too rigid. Also, as a recycled material, white and transparent colors are difficult. OWP can be colored, but as the base material is not transparent or pure white, colors will appear different than on virgin materials. 

Supporting local fishers
Via the OWP program, the company hires local fishers who scoop plastic out of the ocean with nets on their daily fishing trips. Doing so maximizes their outreach and vicinity to ocean plastic while providing them with an additional revenue stream.

Click to EnlargePack Tech employs fishers to collect plastic when they return from their journey into the open ocean using handheld nets.“These fishermen have done this route for decades, so they see it as an easy way to boost their income,” Wishart explains.

“We have witnessed the progressive social impact that this has had on their lives. They are suddenly able to send their children to better schools and buy more healthy foods for their families in what is a relatively deprived area.”

We’re going to need a bigger boat
According to marine preservation organization Ocean Conservancy, 8 million metric tons of plastic go into the ocean annually . 

Pack Tech highlights that producing 1 kg of OWP reduces its CO2 emission by 56 percent compared to producing 1 kg of virgin resin. Recycled resin also uses 85 percent less energy and emits 75 percent fewer greenhouse gases than producing virgin resin.

Pack Tech’s OWP targets UN Sustainable Development Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, as the plastic pollution crisis continues to demand functional and creative solutions to this generational problem.

By Anni Schleicher

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