October 25, 2022
CORPORATE ACTION: Clorox
Clorox Claims Reaching Significant Mileposts In Reducing Plastic Waste In FY 2022
Clorox said it has made “significant progress” in achieving its goal of reducing plastic and other waste, although it gave no detail on the level of plastic use reduction attained. The company also said it has achieved "advanced climate stewardship by reaching scopes 1 and 2 science-based target" of delivering a 62% absolute reduction in greenhouse gas emission from company-owned factories and other facilities compared with a 2020 baseline.[Image Credit: © The Clorox Company]
CORPORATE ACTION: Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola Great Britain Expands Launch Of Plastic Bottles With Attached Caps
Coca-Cola Great Britain has partnered with Coca-Cola Europacific Partners GB to launch beverages that come in 500ml plastic bottles with attached caps. CCEP modified the packaging of 1.5-liter bottles of Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, Diet Coke, and Fanta by attaching the caps to plastic bottles, both of which have been 100% recyclable for many years. However, bottle caps were usually not being recycled and were often discarded and caused litter.[Image Credit: © Coca-Cola Europacific Partners]
CORPORATE ACTION: Colgate
Colgate-Palmolive Works To Achieve Zero Waste Certification For All Facilities By 2025
Colgate-Palmolive aims to have all its facilities Zero Waste certified by 2025. The TRUE Zero Waste is a zero-waste certification program created to “measure, improve and recognize” zero-waste performance. Colgate-Palmolive started its zero waste efforts by studying used packaging of its products discarded by consumers. The company also aims to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design or LEED certification for all its new manufacturing plants.[Image Credit: © Nick Fewings on Unsplash]
CORPORATE ACTION: Henkel
Henkel, Siegwerk Co-Develop Mono-Material Packaging Solution With New Oxygen-Barrier Coating
Henkel and Siegwerk have collaborated to develop a packaging innovation that combines a new oxygen-barrier coating and mono-material packaging for food products. The companies plan to introduce the packaging solution in North America and Europe at the K-Fair in Düsseldorf from October 20 to 24, and at the Pack Expo in Chicago on October 23 to 26, 2022.[Image Credit: © Siegwerk Druckfarben AG & Co. KGaA]
LyondellBasell, Henkel Partner To Develop Innovation In Resealable Packaging
LyondellBasell and Henkel have collaborated to develop resealable packaging with improved reopen and reclose properties. The product features Henkel’s hotmelt adhesive, which is based on a plastomer developed by LyondellBasell. This helps end-users with a “smooth first opening while maintaining desired reopening and reclosure properties” on the amorphous polyethylene terephthalate and polyolefin trays. The packaging technology is currently available in Europe.[Image Credit: © Henkel AG & Co. KGaA]
CORPORATE ACTION: Reckitt Benckiser
Reckitt Launches Paper-Based Packaging For Finish Dishwashing Detergent
Reckitt is launching paper-based packaging for its Finish brand of automatic dishwashing products. The company said the packaging will cut plastic use by 75 percent in its stand-up pouch. Also, Reckitt envisions the packaging innovation to help remove 2,000 tonnes of plastic every year, or 50 million 1-liter bottles.[Image Credit: © Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC]
CORPORATE ACTION: Unilever
Winners Of 2022 Innovation Exchange Challenge Announced
Global Alliance Africa and Unilever have announced the winners of the 2022 Innovation Exchange Challenge. Unilever is collaborating with Global Alliance Africa to promote recycling and help reduce plastic waste in South Africa. The strategic partners invited companies, organizations and individuals across the country to submit proposals to be considered for the awards.[Image Credit: © Willfried Wende from Pixabay]
CORPORATE ACTION: Other
Packaging Providers Offer Mono-Material Solutions For Earth-Friendly Manufacturers
Nate Packaging offers mono-material packaging as a sustainable, earth-friendly packaging option for companies and manufacturers committed to reducing their impact on the environment. Mono-material packaging provides a “fast-track solution” that allows manufacturers to simplify recycling because there is no need to “disassemble and sort a package” and its components for disposal. Also, mono-material packaging continues to improve in terms of compatibility with existing molding tools and decorating applications. It is one of the fastest growing product lines at International Cosmetic Suppliers Ltd., while WWP Beauty is integrating mono-material with both existing and new designs.[Image Credit: © Nate Packaging]
La Roche-Posay Launches Moisturizing Cream In Earth-Friendly Packaging
La Roche-Posay has launched the Lipikar AP+M Moisturizing Cream in Eco-Tube, packaging that includes cardboard and uses 60 percent less plastic. The skincare product comes in two sizes: a 400ml bottle with pump that is made from 96 percent recycled plastic and the 200ml eco-tube. It is formulated with 100 percent sustainably-sourced shea butter from Burkina Faso and does not contain a fragrance or parabens.[Image Credit: © La Roche-Posay via PRNewsfoto ]
Upstream, Closed Loop Partners Announce Winners Of 2022 National Reuse Awards
Upstream and Closed Loop Partners announced the winners of the National Reuse Awards 2022, which honor the leaders and achievers of the reuse movement across North America. Algramo won the Most Innovative Reuse Company for the Consumer Packaged Goods category with its solution combining refill stations with home delivery trucks. The Rounds won the Most Innovative Reuse Company Award for the Enabling Technologies category with its subscription-based home delivery service for household products in reusable containers. The Kroger/Loop Partnership was recognized for the Corporate Initiative of the Year with a program that allows consumers to buy household products in reusable containers.[Image Credit: © Jasmin Sessler on Unsplash]
Loop Industries Develops 100% Recycled Plastic Bottle For L’OCCITANE En Provence
Loop Industries, Inc., has partnered with L’OCCITANE en Provence to develop a new bottle made from 100% recycled Loop PET resin for the beauty company’s Almond Shower Oil brand. The partnership deal includes putting Loop’s branding on the front of the product’s packaging, which highlights the circularity and quality of the material. Loop supplies its 100% recycled virgin-quality PET resin for food packaging applications to leading consumer brand companies.[Image Credit: © Loop Industries, Inc.]
Heineken UK Updates Green Grip Cardboard Holder For Beverage Cans
Heineken UK has launched an updated version of its Green Grip cardboard holder for multiple packs of beverage cans. In August 2020, the company launched the Green Grip, which replaced plastic can holders with 100% recyclable cardboard packaging. The product eliminated the need for single-use plastic while offering convenience equivalent to plastic packaging. It also helped Heineken UK remove 336 tonnes of single-use plastic from its supply chain.[Image Credit: © Heineken UK Limited]
Study: Children Play Important Role In Promoting Sustainability In UK Homes
In the UK, 64 percent of parents said their children “influence their own sustainable habits”. Results of research supported by SC Johnson revealed that 54 percent of children aged 4-16 years are “actively being more sustainable at home”, while 39 percent of parents said their children have asked them to “do more at home to be sustainable”. Also, survey results showed 55 percent of children “regularly ask their parents about sustainability and protecting the environment”.[Image Credit: © S.C. Johnson & Son Inc.]
Sainsbury’s Adopts Aluminum Pods For Own Range Of Coffee Products
UK retailer Sainsbury’s has changed its private-label coffee pod range from plastic to aluminum pods. The company said this makes the entire range 100 percent recyclable and will help save more than 10 million pieces of plastic waste each year. Customers can recycle Sainsbury’s coffee pods by rinsing them and placing them in kerbside recycling or by buying a Dualit EcoPress from the retailer.[Image Credit: © J Sainsbury plc]
CAMPAIGNS, COMMITMENTS & NGOs
Consumer Goods Forum Companies Highlight Demand For Chemically Recycled Plastics
Member companies of The Consumer Goods Forum’s Coalition of Action on Plastic Waste, including Colgate-Palmolive, Henkel and Unilever, said they want to purchase chemically recycled material made according to their environmental safeguards. Also, results of a survey of member companies of the coalition revealed annual demand for chemically recycled material is forecast to reach 800,000 tonnes by 2030. The group also forecast a 40 percent drop in system-level emissions in locations where chemical recycling was available for processing hard-to-recycle plastics.[Image Credit: © The Consumer Goods Forum]
Google Launches Circular Economy Accelerator Program For NGOs And Startups
Google has announced a circular economy accelerator program for startups and NGOs that are applying technology to solve circularity problems and challenges. Applications will be accepted until November 2022 for the accelerator program that focuses on issues, such as reuse, refill and recycling, and covers the U.S. and Asia-Pacific region. Google will choose 10 to 15 startups and NGOs to participate in the program, with those chosen to receive equity-free support during the three-month period and access to $200,000 worth of Google Cloud credits and mentorship.[Image Credit: © Geissdoerfer M Pieroni MP Pigosso DC and Soufani K]
CONSUMER & PUBLIC OPINION
UK Consumers Doubt Sustainability Claims Of Beauty Brands
Most U.K. consumers distrust beauty brands when it comes to their sustainability claims. Details from the “Skin Deep Beauty” report from Provenance revealed that while 90 percent of consumers consider sustainability when choosing beauty and wellness products to buy, 79 percent “have difficulty trusting” beauty brands’ sustainability claims. Also, only a third of respondents say they understand the criteria used for waste and recycling claims made by the brands, while only 26 percent say the same regarding nature and animal welfare claims.[Image Credit: © PROVENANCE]
American Consumers Fail To Recycle 95% Of Plastic Waste They Generate
American households recycled only 5 percent of the 51 million tonnes of plastic waste they made in 2021. Details from the report, “Circular Claims Fall Flat Again”, revealed that the rest ended up in landfills, oceans or the atmosphere. In 2018, the official recycling rate in the US dropped to 8.7 percent from 9.5 percent in 2014. The report also says “not a single type of plastic packaging” complies fully with the definition of recyclable used by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.[Image Credit: © Antoine GIRET on Unsplash]
Survey Shows Americans Are Worried About Plastic Pollution
In the United States, 91 percent of consumers take into consideration the amount of plastic used in a product when making purchase decisions. Results of the survey commissioned by UK-based Xampla also revealed that 45 percent of respondents believe that manufacturers of plastic products or products packaged in plastic are most responsible for solving the plastic pollution problem. The survey also revealed that 57 percent of Americans are very concerned or extremely concerned about plastic pollution.[Image Credit: © Business Wire/Xampla]
PACKAGING REDESIGNS
Personal Care Brands Look At Dissolvable Packaging To Deal With Plastic Pollution
Some personal care brands are leading efforts to develop and use water-soluble alternatives to plastic packaging. These water-soluble packs are designed to disintegrate when mixed with hot water, and contain polyvinyl alcohol or other proprietary dissolvable ingredients. For example, the Plus body wash brand comes in “zero-waste” packaging made from dehydrated paper sheets designed to dissolve into a foam of eucalyptus leaf oil, shea butter, and aloe leaf.[Image Credit: © Vivianne Lemay on Unsplash]
POLICY, REGULATION & LEGAL
French Environmentalist Groups Warn Companies Of Legal Action Over Inadequate Sustainability Actions
Surfrider Foundation Europe, ClientEarth and Zero Waste France have warned legal action against nine food and retail companies in France for their inadequate response to the plastic pollution they produce. The environmentalist groups sent letters to the companies, including Nestlé France, Danone, McDonald’s France and Carrefour, advising them to respond to their concerns and “fulfil their legal obligations under French law”. France’s Duty of Vigilance law requires large companies to publish an annual vigilance plan detailing the “environmental and social risks” linked to their operations and those of their subsidiaries, suppliers and subcontractors.[Image Credit: © ClientEarth]
EC Goes On Legal Warpath Against Member States Over Single-Use Plastics Laws
The European Commission started legal proceedings against 11 European Union member states to prompt them to speed up the implementation of the EC’s Single-Use Plastics Directive. According to the EC, member states, including Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, and Ireland, have failed to enact national laws that would integrate provisions of the EU’s single-use plastics policy. The EC enacted the directive on July 3, 2019, with member states obliged to “transpose” the legislation into national law within two years. Some of the key provisions of the directive include preventing entry of single-use plastics into the market when sustainable alternatives are available and affordable.[Image Credit: © Zuzanna Szczepańska on Unsplash]
RESEARCH
Cobalt Catalyst Transforms Mixed Recycled Plastics Into Fuel-Grade Propane
Scientists used a cobalt-based catalyst to transform more than 80 percent of mixed recycled plastics, including polyethylene and polypropylene, into propane suitable for use as fuel or feedstock for new plastics. A study published in the October 5, 2022 issue of the journal “JACS Au”, by scientists from MIT, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, discussed how cobalt catalyzed the solvent-free hydrogenolysis of commonly used plastics into propane. Cobalt also substantially cut the formation of methane that appears with bulk cobalt oxide or cobalt nanoparticles on other carriers.[Image Credit: © Massachusetts Institute of Technology via Wikimedia Commons]
OTHER NEWS
UK Households Contaminate Their Recycling Bins With Unrecyclable Waste
In the U.K., 84 percent of households are unintentionally contaminating their recycling by adding unrecyclable waste to recycling bins. Data released by Recycle Now for the Recycle Week 2022 campaign to promote recycling in the country revealed that the biggest contaminant is broken or old drinking glasses, which account for 33 percent of waste mistakenly added by U.K. households to their recycling, followed by foil pouches with 29 percent and toothpaste tubes with 26 percent.[Image Credit: © WRAP]
More...
Copyright 2024 Business360, Inc.