By Paula Birch, global sales director, Parkside
FLEXIBLE plastic packaging delivers significant sustainability benefits. Aside from protecting and preserving goods, it also requires significantly fewer resources and less energy to create than other popular ‘sustainable’ substrates.
Plastic enables food products to travel further distances, extends shelf life and limits food waste. Studies by the British Plastics Federation show that during food processing and manufacture, plastic packaging accounts for less than 10% of energy use, with 75% utilised during the various food production, processing, and transport phases. Plastic essentially plays a vital role in protecting products as long as possible during the supply chain.
Protecting the environment
Removing plastic from packaging would be detrimental to a wide range of products and could ultimately affect consumer health and safety. The sector is aware of the importance of protecting the environment. However, we must understand that packaging in all formats and materials is fundamentally sustainable, as it protects and preserves goods, minimising waste and energy, and ultimately therefore protecting the environment.
The plastic packaging ‘problem’ is about much more than simply taking it off the supermarket shelves; the debate encompasses human behaviour, government policy on recycling and infrastructure, and carefully weighing up the pros and cons of one substrate over another depending on the application.
Leading market research specialist McKinsey states: Until further notice, plastics are here to stay, with an emerging green premium on the recycled raw material. With current infrastructure gaps and technical challenges in transforming packaging portfolios, leading brand owners seem not to be making shifts away from plastic packaging — for now. Instead, they are working on improving the use of plastics by consolidating the types of plastic used, focusing on improving recyclability, decreasing new plastic resin usage, and accelerating the use of other recycled materials.
Viable solutions
Recycling and sustainability therefore remain at the top of brands and retailers agendas, and most of them have carried on working towards giving their customers the packaging experience they desire. In the long term, this ensures customer retention and loyalty, plus drives demand for recyclable flexible packaging.
To maximise recycling quality of all materials, in general, flexible plastic packaging should be collected as a separate stream or with other light packaging and not mixed with paper, board or glass. The additional sorting of flexible packaging is necessary to ensure it can be effectively recycled.
Since most flexible packaging is comprised of multiple layers, it is not always easy to recycle. Some layers within the package may be recyclable, but it is difficult and sometimes impossible to separate the layers for recycling, preventing the entire package from being deemed ‘recyclable’ post-consumer use. Parkside has therefore created an alternative end of use disposal route for flexible packaging through the development of its Park2Nature range which is suitable for home and industrial composting rather than traditional recycling routes.
While some argue biodegradable and compostable packaging is not finding its way into organic waste recycling facilities in the UK yet, Parkside developed a home compostable range of materials, with full accreditation, to resolve this challenge. The compostable packaging range is comprised of innovative multilayer laminates sourced from sustainable sources. The design allows for excellent oxygen, aroma, and moisture barriers to extend the shelf life of the product while maintaining optimum flavour. The packs are fully home compostable and designed to break down entirely within 26 weeks, gaining accreditation from TUV (formerly Vincotte). They are also rigorously tested for eco-toxicity and a host of other criteria against EN 13432 and have also been tested and proven to fully break down in seawater.
As the plastics industry evolves introducing new products onto the market, it is also ensuring it is designing for recycling wherever possible. For example, developing monopolymer designs suitable for single stream recycling channels.
A new sustainable packaging portfolio from Parkside comprises three variations of its Recoflex technology; a high barrier, single polymer laminate, ideal for recycling processes, which can be manufactured with paper, Polypropylene (PP), or Polyethylene (PE). Recoflex can be widely recycled and is suitable for a diverse range of applications, including pouches and flow wraps.
This range also contains the company’s leading Parkscribe reclose lidding films, which are manufactured from >30% recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET). Suitable for use on PET trays used in applications including fresh and cooked meats, fruit, and vegetables, this innovative solution creates a single polymer PET complete pack ideal for recycling and reduces waste in the home through its innovative reclose functionality.
Circular economy
The plastics industry is steering itself towards the circular economy and at the same time the need for both the public and private sectors to support the transition to a circular economy provides the framework for better design of plastic packaging. Here the industry can start producing a range of flexible packaging alternatives for brands that can be used in an array of applications where extended shelf-life through high barrier performance, and in some cases, resealability is essential.
