A. How many takeaway meals were consumed over the course of the games?
14 million
How much waste to landfill were Olympics organisers expecting to have to go to landfill?
8,500 tones.
How many pieces of packaging were needed for the games and by supplying these what did London Bio Packaging help the games achieve?
They supplied all 120 million of packaging that as needed, which were all responsible made and responsible recycled. They had a cleaver system called ‘closed loop’, which closes the gaps between making, recycling and composting packaging. In other words they could supply all the sustainable packaging you might need and insured every single piece is either recycled or composted. It is turned/made back into packaging which is then delivered to companies and is then ready of it to be re-used.
How many stages are there in their ‘closed loop’ system, and what happens at each stage?
- London Bio Packaging make packaging out of either recycled or composted materials so that every single piece of packaging is sustainable.
- They supply massive global company and tiny business with this sustainable packaging.
- The eco symbols on coloured bins made it easy and simple for the public to dispose of the packaging they received in the correct way.
- London Bio Packaging re-make packaging out of the materials recycled into the correct bins, which is then re-delivered to companies and is then ready of it to be re-used and re-recycled.
- The loop starts again.
What are Bio-plastics? Is there anything that can explain further the oil and carbon savings?
Bio-plastics are plastics made from plants. The starch contained within the plant is processed to produce a polymer. It is actually possible to produce most polymers from bio materials, but the bio plastics London Bio Packaging uses most commonly are Ingeo PLA (Poly-Lactic Acid) and Mater-Bi.
Bio-plastics behave in a similar way to conventional plastics and are suitable for most packaging applications. However, unlike finite oil based plastics which take millions of years to form and hundreds of years to degrade, they are annually renewable and suitable for commercial compost within 12 weeks where facilities exist.
The carbon footprint of Bio-plastic is therefore much lower than traditional petroleum based plastics. For examples, manufacturing Ingeo produces 60 percent less greenhouse gases and uses 50 percent less non-renewable energy than traditional plastics like petroleum.
What is PSM and what are it’s key properties?
Plant Starch Material (PSM) is a flexible bio based packaging material which has not been refined into a bio-plastic.
PSM key properties are, heat resistant making it particularly suitable for hot food applications and ideal for bio disposable cutlery. Also it is made from from renewable crops like corn or potatoes.
What is sugar bagasse and how might it be turned into packaging?
Bagasse is the waste material produced once sugar cane has been harvested for the sugar syrup. This fibrous material is a renewable resource.
There is not currently adequate information on the associated carbon emissions, but as this is a waste product, it will by definition be saving carbon as it replaces what would otherwise be a requirement for some virgin material manufacture.
Sugar bagasse is turned into packaging products from its raw form using a process of heating, pulping and then pressurised moulding. These are heat resistant and microwaveable making them ideal as hot food containers and best of all, naturally compostable.
What is rPET and how might it be turned into packaging?
rPET stands for recycled polyethylene terephthalate. It is the most common plastic that is being recycled primary applications, this allows the plastic to be re-used as another bottle.
Recycled plastics reduce the amount of fossil fuel resources and divert material from landfill and can themselves be recycled, meaning they have a lower carbon footprint than virgin plastics.
References for the above information:
WRAP
Who are wrap?
Wrap work to help people recycle more and waste less, both at home and at work, and offers economic as well as environmental benefits. They work with a wide range of partners, from major UK businesses, trade bodies and local authorities through to individuals looking for practical advice.
They have clear guiding principles:
- A focus on preventing waste.
- Getting good value for money for the tax-payer and proving it.
- Working in partnership and supporting the work of others.
- Being flexible and business like.
Three considerations within ‘design for re-use’:
Re-usable packaging is on the increase in the business-to-business sector – pallets, roll-cages, metal, plastic and fibreboard drums, beer kegs, crates, and trays for bread and other products.
When it is left to private consumers to return the used packaging, their willingness to do so depends on how easily this fits into the way they live. So the first consideration within ‘design for re-use’ is, if you want to introduce re-usable consumer packaging, you must make it as convenient as possible for them to return the empties.
Re-usable packaging may be part of a ‘closed loop’ system in which it circulates within a company or between two companies or within an organised group of companies. The most common form of re-use for consumer products is re-usable, strong packaging which stays with the end-user (e.g. biscuit tin, spice jar, coffee jar, laundry detergent bottle) and is refilled from one-way.
This leads to the second consideration within ‘design for re-use’ which is, obtain written confirmation from your supplier that the packaging is capable of re-use, and confirmation from your customers that they intend to place the packaging into a re-use circuit.
Finally both of the considerations above leads into the final third consideration which is, to check that your business partners will also treat the packaging as re-usable and will return it as appropriate, or that collection arrangements are in place to enable private end-users to return it.
Three considerations within ‘design for recycling’:
Design for recycling if the infrastructure is in place (or can be created) to collect, sort and clean the packaging in a way that will yield a net gain in resources. Designing for recycling makes sense for packaging made predominantly from glass, metals, board or rigid plastics because the packaging typically contains sufficient material to justify spending additional resources to collect it after use for recycling.
The packaging materials most widely collected for recycling from householders, either directly from the kerbside or through ‘bring’ banks, are aluminium cans, steel cans, glass bottles and jars, and plastic bottles. In some areas, folding cartons, milk and juice cartons, and plastic carrier bags are also collected.
Recycling will yield a net gain in resources and therefore make a positive contribution to the overall resource efficiency of the complete life-cycle. It is important, therefore, to avoid adding any components that may become contaminants in the recycling process.
So the first consideration within ‘design for recycling’ is, to try to avoid materials, combinations of materials or designs of packaging that might create problems in collecting, sorting or recycling. Therefore minimising the use of overall materials, trying to only use one material that can be 100% recycled.
The first consideration leads into the second consideration which is, to minimise the use of substances or materials that might create technical, environmental or health problems in the recycling process or in the disposal of recycling residues.
With the other two considerations in mind a finally third consideration is, to construct your packaging so that the end-user can easily separate any components that should not go into the recycling process (‘design for disassembly’). Therefore is can easily be recycled.
How effective is Metal, Glass, Paper and Board and Plastics, and which may achieve the ‘best’ award for recyclability?
Recycled materials have been used in most types of packaging for many years. For some materials, there are trade-offs that need to be considered.
Metal packaging, both steel and aluminium, has a high recycled content, and this has no effect on functional performance.
Glass packaging, also has a high recycled content and this has no effect on functional performance.
Paper and board packaging, for non-food contact use contains high levels of recycled content. However, paper packaging with a high recycled content may have to be heavier than packaging made from virgin fibres. This is because each time fibres are recycled,
they lose strength so more fibres are needed to achieve the same level of protection.
they lose strength so more fibres are needed to achieve the same level of protection.
And… when virgin fibre is specified, can you ensure that it is sourced from sustainably managed forests, which comply with recognised standards? Therefore might not be fully recycled materials.
Plastics packaging, has seldom contained recycled content mainly for safety reasons, especially for food contact applications. However, technology has moved on and it is now possible to use some recycled plastics for food packaging.
Although recycling is often an effective way of recovering resources from packaging waste, it isn’t the only way. The next section covers designing packaging for compostability. The UK plans to recover the energy from 25% of its municipal solid waste by 2020 (twice the current rate), so if your packaging is likely to be heavily contaminated by the residual contents, or if you decide that laminates are the most appropriate form of packaging for you, then this is a complementary alternative to recycling. And to be classed as energy recoverable, packaging must generate more energy than that needed to drive the combustion process. To be sure of this ‘calorific gain’, the net calorific value must be at least 5 MJ/kg.
Metal may achieve the ‘best’ award for recyclability as it’s a highly recycled content, and has NO EFFECT on functional performance.
INCPEN
Who are Incpen?
They use the knowledge from our research to encourage companies to continuously improve packaged products systems, to help ensure that public policy on packaging makes a positive contribution to sustainability and to create a better understanding of the role of packaging in society.
They believe these three points make Good packaging:
- Optimises the use of material, water and energy
- Minimises waste from both product and used packaging
- Can be recovered after use as material, energy or compost.
My feelings on packaging in supermarkets.
There is no excuse for this non-recyclable packaging – we live in a technological age, so let’s embrace that and combine it with some common sense to eradicate non recyclable packaging. It’s shocking that many items cannot be recycled, this is not acceptable. This is bad, not only for the increasing landfill but it also gives the supermarkets a bad name.
Are there ways i which it could be improved?
Yes, for one use recyclable materials, two use material that can be composted, three use materials that can be re-used, four use materials that have already been recycled before (re-use other materials) and five decrease the use of materials used.
However there are recycling points that the council offer so that you can recycle domestically, there are really good for people who have cars and have time to do so. So why not offer these bins / recycling points are home, just like the ‘black bin’ and ‘green bin’, offer a bin for ‘other recycled’ products that can’t be put into the green bin, but could be recycled if recycling points that the council offer were closer.
Paints you find in DIY or supermarket stores are closely related to plastic, therefore it’s a better idea to manufacture products on the bases of natural raw materials.
Since 1983 AURO have been developing products by using plants and mineral raw materials, with them being biodegradable materials they can be reintegrated into the natural cycle of materials.
Emission free water-based paint, free from unpleasant smells and free from toxins.
They use sustainable, renewable and raw materials. Numerous plant species form the bases of their products, they deliver natural colourrence, binding agents and solvents that tolerated better by humans.
Man and nature are at the centre of AURO’s attention, their product waste gets composted and they exclusively use eco-power. AURO is a green enterprise through and through.
More and more customers world wide places their trust in AURO’s products. It’s outstanding test results from DIY journals and consumer magazines lets customers know the good work AURO do.
AURO delivers from Braunschweig in Germany to the whole world, more than 40% of their products are currently exported which is a growing trend.
Over all AURO is efficient, reliable and based on sustainable production.
No comments:
Post a Comment