Weekly Roundup: UPM Biofuels partners Dow to commercialize bio-based plastic, Amcor opens e-commerce testing labs

27 Sep 2019 --- This week in industry news, UMP Biofuels collaborated with Dow to produce plastics made with renewable feedstock. Amcor has opened e-commerce laboratories to help optimize customer packaging, while Hi-Cone and TerraCycle have initiated a postal recycling system for plastic ring carriers. UFlex announced its launch of an initiative to convert plastic waste into into products that have an economic value. Also, new research revealed that tea packed in plastic tea bags is riddled with microplastics, with scientists yet to understand the potential effects on human health.

In brief: Collaboration
In partnership with UPM Biofuels, a producer of advanced biofuels, Dow has commercialized plastic packaging made from a bio-based renewable feedstock. The company is integrating wood-based UPM BioVerno renewable naphtha – a tall oil-based material used to develop plastics – into its portfolio of raw materials as an alternative source for plastics production. UPM BioVerno naphtha is first produced at UPM’s biorefinery in Lappeenranta, Finland. It is then used to create bio-based polyethylene (PE) at its production facility in Terneuzen, tThe Netherlands, for use in packaging applications such as food packaging to reduce food waste. This process also significantly reduces CO2 emissions compared to standard fossil-derived PE resins. The entire supply chain is International Sustainability & Carbon Certification (ISCC) certified, based on mass balance approach, meaning that all steps meet traceability criteria and reduce negative environmental impacts.

With a growing demand for clean, high-quality recycled PE plastic, Clariant has teamed up with pigment supplier Merck KGaA (Merck) and resin producer SABIC to develop laser-marking technology to ease the recycling process for flexible polyethylene packaging film. The collaboration is focused on eliminating the printing ink used for tracking, shelf-life and bar codes in a bid to limit recycling-related contamination. SABIC contributes the polymer technology that delivers the properties required in the film packaging while Merck provides laser-sensitive Iriotec pigments and marking expertise. Clariant finalizes the collaboration by developing the additive masterbatch formulations for use in the film extrusion process. The results of the partnership will be presented at K 2019, the international plastics trade fair being held on October 16- to 23 at Messe Dusseldorf in Germany.

Compostable cups, containers and cutlery are sent to a specialist food waste facility where microbes transform them into gas, electricity and nutrient-rich fertilizer.Vegware is teaming up with recycling company First Mile to provide a UK-wide end-of-life solution for its compostable foodservice disposables using RecycleBox, First Mile’s low cost, courier-led recycling service. Consumers can now send their compostable packaging, otherwise not collected by local councils and other waste companies, to a specialist facility for organic recycling. Here, microbes transform the waste into gas, electricity and nutrient-rich fertilizer. “Over two dozen UK facilities accept our compostable products. Trade collections for used Vegware now cover 38 percent of UK postcodes, up from 2 percent in 2012 when we started working with the waste sector,” says Lucy Frankel, Vegware’s Environmental and Communications Director. While all of Vegware’s compostable disposables are encouraged to be thrown out, food waste, garden waste and non-organic material must still be exempted from the RecycleBox. 

In brief: Launches
Amcor has opened two e-commerce testing laboratories in the US and Belgium, where packaging experts will test and certify packaging for global customers. With consumer raising their expectations for seamless e-commerce experiences, brands need packaging that is convenient, attractive and more sustainable but still robust enough to prevent leaking or breaking. Amcor’s new laboratories are certified to test packaged products for International Safe Transit Association (ISTA) 6 Amazon. With other online retailers developing their own requirements, the company is offering a range of other tests, which includes trialing digital simulation services. "Our e-commerce tests predict where failures might occur and then we help customers to prevent product loss by designing packaging to address weak points like seals, spouts and caps,” says Frédéric Froemer, Technical Director for Amcor.

Together with specialist recycling company TerraCycle, Hi-Cone has begun a UK-wide initiative to facilitate the recycling of plastic ring carriers and educate consumers on their contribution to the waste cycle. Besides waste cycle information, the Ring Recycle website offers a free download of a shipping label. This can be attached to a postal package of consumers’ collected plastic ring carriers which can then be sent to TerraCycle in the post. The aim is to build a network of these public access drop-off locations across the UK to make it as easy as possible to recycle.

Sainsbury's is committed to reducing its plastic packaging by 50 percent by 2025.UK-supermarket juggernaut Sainsbury’s is set to launch a 12-week trial to reduce plastic packaging in fresh floral bouquets. Replacing the transparent plastic sleeves with paper packaging, this initiative is projected to save over ten metric tons of plastic. The move comes as part of the supermarket’s commitment to reduce plastics by 50 percent by 2025. Besides floral arrangement plastic packaging, Sainsbury’s is launching other plastic reduction initiatives over the coming weeks, targeting its bakery sections, fresh produce departments and online grocery deliveries. 

Plastic polymer company UFlex has launched Project Plastic Fix, a pioneering sustainability initiative designed to convert cleaned-up plastic waste into products with an economic value. It aims to do so by recycling, reprocessing, collecting and converting plastic waste into green, biodegradable biomass. After passing its pilot phase in India, Poland and Mexico, the project will be looking at additional locations along the US East Coast and later in the UK.

In brief: Research and studies
A recent study published in the Environmental Science & Technology journal has discovered that plastic tea bags may be infused with microplastics. While scientists have detected the microscopic particles in the environment, aquatic organisms and the food supply, the health effects of ingestion are yet to be determined. Using electron microscopy, the research team found that a single plastic tea bag at brewing temperature released about 11.6 billion microplastic and 3.1 billion nanoplastic particles into the water. These levels were thousands of times higher than those reported previously in other foods, the study found. 

Edited by Anni Schleicher