StePac unveils four-pillared sustainability strategy, championing plastics in fight against food waste

29 Oct 2019 --- Fresh produce functional packaging specialist StePac has announced its four-pillared strategy for greener packaging. The strategy supports the need for climate-positive plastic packaging, addressing the critical problem of food waste with shelf-life extending solutions such as Xtend modified atmosphere packaging (MAP). The Isreali-based innovator champions plastic as the material most capable of minimizing food waste and supports mechanical and chemical recycling as key components of a circular economy.

StePac describes food waste as a “global epidemic,” with almost a third of all food and nearly half of all fresh produce wasted annually. Not only does this create an ethical crisis, with millions suffering food deprivation around the world, but it creates an environmental crisis – food waste contributes to about 8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, the supplier reports.

Gary Ward, Business Development Manager for StePac, tells PackagingInsights that food waste is a multifaceted problem. Supermarkets rejecting approximately 25 percent of crops produced by farms, poor post-harvest handling practices, handling damage at stores and depots, poor supply chain management and household waste are all contributors to the problem.

As fresh food requires travel and processing from field-to-fork, abandoning plastic packaging would inevitably exacerbate the crisis, says Stepac, as plastic is the medium most capable of keeping food fresher, longer and allows for wider food distribution.

StePac has designed a four-tiered strategy that can reduce excessive plastic use while driving more responsible packaging, leading the sector from a linear to a circular economy through applying a “more responsible, leaner and sustainable approach.” The new strategy addresses key areas of manufacturing, use, and recycling.

First pillar: Use plastic packaging only if it has positive climate effect
StePac’s leading brand of Xtend MAP is “Climate Positive,” extending shelf-life and reducing waste in the fresh produce supply chain while saving more carbon emissions than it generates.

“Xtend is customized to provide a produce specific modified atmosphere for shelf-life extension in a range of different packaging formats, including pallet shrouds, bin liners, carton liners, preformed retail packaging and roll-stock for automated packing applications,” Ward explains.

“We are unique in that we use films with a wide range of water vapor transmission rates (WVTR). Films with high WVTR values help mitigate the risk of decay by expelling condensation if it forms within the packaging. The film and hence the WVTR selected for any one application is determined by the sensitivity of the produce to excess moisture, sensitivity to dehydration, surface area to weight ratio and the length of the supply chain,” he adds. 

Stepac was a pioneer in developing packaging solutions that, in one example, enabled Peruvian exporters to make the transition from air freight to sea freight of white asparagus to Europe. This resulted in a reduction of 5,500 kg CO2 emissions/ton of product shipped.

In another example, Xtend packaging also proved a compelling replacement for waxed cartons in the shipment of broccoli from Salinas Valley, California across the American continent to New York City. The result was a net saving of 144 kg/ton of broccoli – a 40 percent reduction. 

“Rejecting the use of such innovative packaging for similar supply chains would increase carbon emissions and drag the industry a big, unsustainable and expensive step backward,” insists Ward.

Second pillar: Climate-positive packaging must be as lean as possible
The use of StePac’s lean top-seal film reaps the dual benefits of extending shelf-life while saving 20-30 percent plastic over conventional clamshells.

“We use films that are typically 20-35 microns thick for both preformed bags and automated packaging – considerably thinner than most alternatives,” continues Ward. StePac’s patented Xflow packaging system was developed to facilitate a shift to automation for packaging bulk produce, reducing plastic use by as much as 40 percent in comparison to manual packing in pre-formed bags.Xflow blueberries.

Third pillar: Mechanically recyclable packaging to support a circular economy
Mechanical recycling recovers plastics waste via processes encompassing grinding, washing, separating, drying, re-granulating and compounding and keeps polymers intact. Although many structures can be mechanically recycled, only pure streams of plastic types such as PET bottles and polyethylene permit multiple-use in the same or similar products. The non-pure plastics can only be mechanically recycled for down-streamed products and as such don’t support a circular economy. 

StePac boasts a range of homopolymer-based products with modified atmosphere properties, that can be mechanically recycled to support a resource-efficient looped system. These include polyethylene-based bulk packaging products, polyethylene-based standing pouches and PET-based top-seal solutions, all suitable for those produce items and supply chains that benefit from films having low water-vapor transmission rates.

Fourth pillar: Chemical recycling should complement mechanical recycling
More sophisticated, multilayered laminated structures have emerged over the years in the fresh produce packaging industry that cannot be mechanically recycled to be reused in the same or similar products. Chemical recycling converts plastic materials into their initial monomers, allowing them to be reborn into new plastic products.

“Replacing these sophisticated plastic structures without increasing waste is no simple task,” says Ward. “We have multi-layered plastic structures that conform to chemical recycling, a process which is complementary to mechanical recycling systems in facilitating a truly circular economy. This is the direction the industry is taking, and StePac’s goal is to lead it toward a more sustainably sound phase.”

“There are many properties that are inherent in multi-layered structures that it would be very difficult to achieve using simple plastic structures. We need chemical recycling to complement mechanical recycling and facilitate the ongoing use of these valuable creations,” Ward tells PackagingInsights.

“Food waste needs more attention”
Ward believes that governments should be more supportive of campaigns and research aimed at reducing food waste in the supply chain. 

“Governments should also be more forceful with waste minimization plans by requiring companies to report on their waste and identify ways to reduce it. They should make available better data on types of food waste to help facilitate better management of it.”

Both food waste and plastic pollution are urgent issues, says Ward. “I just wish that food waste was receiving the attention that plastic pollution is.”

“Functional plastic packaging is part of the solution for preventing this waste and ousting it would result in even increased levels of food waste. Nevertheless, plastic packaging must be used and disposed of responsibly, with the emphasis on recycling to support a circular economy. This is where education and a more holistic approach is required,” Ward concludes.

By Joshua Poole