Reelbrands offsets carbon emissions with food waste-powered corrugated board production
22 Sep 2021 --- Reelbrands is highlighting a corrugated board production process “powered by food waste.” The REELcorrugated boards typically cost the same as traditional corrugated, but with a “significantly lower environmental impact,” explains Chris McNeill, co-founder and COO at Reelbrands.
“REELcorrugated is manufactured in the UK and made from power generated by a massive anaerobic digester. A great example of this working in practice is where we take a client’s fish waste and convert it into bioenergy, and then re-supply the client with corrugated packaging,” he tells PackagingInsights.
Last year, UK-based Three Oceans became the first company to use corrugated board powered by its own fish waste.
Reelbrands works in partnership with The Swanline Group, a trade printer and converter of corrugated and other fiber-based materials. Swaline is a part-owner of CorrBoard Bioenergy, which converts 25,000 pounds of food waste annually into energy.
“We have huge available capacity and this has potential to be scaled-up for UK-based companies,” adds McNeill.
The board’s potential
In terms of lead times, Reelbrands can typically achieve a new pack sign-off from scratch within six to eight weeks. “But once we have a forecast in place and the artwork organized, we can deliver within two weeks from order or call-off,” McNeill says.
Last year, UK-based Three Oceans became the first company to use corrugated board powered by its own fish waste.“The impact of moving to this new process is significant, providing a wide range of board options including F, E, B-flute single-wall and double-wall corrugated boards, which can be printed digitally, screen, litho or flexo depending upon the graphic and volume requirements. We have numerous conversion options depending upon the pack or display design complexity,” he continues.
The biggest challenge is educating potential customers on the potential of the process, which finished commissioning in 2020.
“The best approach is closed-loop, where we arrange the collection of the client’s food waste, have this converted into bioenergy, then supply the corrugated sheets to a packaging converter/partner. The client can then offset its waste and carbon footprint as part of its wider sustainability objectives.”
No carbon-neutral label
Notably, the corrugated manufacturing process is energy-intensive by nature, usually driven by fossil-based power.
By using food waste instead, the process is carbon-neutral. However, there are still carbon impacts associated with paper supply, downward conversion, and transport. “But this [process] is significantly better,” says Reelbrands.
Dispersion coating
Dispersion coating is a hotly debated topic in the packaging industry at the moment. McNeill recently spoke with PackagingInsights about what dispersion coating really is and the misconceptions surrounding it in a video interview.
The company also launched a fiber-based boards range aimed at replacing plastic food packaging with recyclable alternatives.
By Anni Schleicher, with additional reporting from Louis Gore-Langton
