05.01.06
In 2003, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimated that the United States produced more than 236 million tons of municipal solid waste — 35.2 percent of it was paper material, 11.3 percent was plastic, 8 percent was metal and 5.3 percent was glass. Although nearly 30 percent of the total was recycled or composted, the overwhelming majority of waste was sent to landfills.
For many packages today, the cycle remains cradle to grave. The package is manufactured with virgin materials, fulfills its purpose and ends up in a landfill. But according to a growing number of constituents in industry today, that does not have to be.
The Sustainable Packaging Coalition, a project undertaken by not-for-profit organization GreenBlue, Charlottesville, VA, offers this vision statement: “The Sustainable Packaging Coalition envisions a world where all packaging is sourced responsibly, designed to be effective and safe throughout its life cycle, meets market criteria and cost, is made entirely using renewable energy and once used, is recycled efficiently to provide a valuable resource for subsequent generations. In summary: a true cradle to cradle system for all packaging.”
Is this a lofty goal? Is it decades away? Not necessarily. A number of beauty brands, whether voluntarily or on account of regulations, are adopting packaging policies promoting good environmental stewardship. As technology advances, a true cradle to cradle infrastructure may be realized. Until then, several beauty marketers are working toward the goal of sustainable packaging with growing success.
“A lot of people in industry say ‘I can never reach it,’ ‘it’s too high a goal’ or ‘you will never get there.’ The issue isn’t getting there; it’s about taking the journey to get closer and closer to that point. We are not that far away,” says John Delfausse, vice president of package development for the Aveda brand, The Estée Lauder Companies, New York, NY.
Using Post-Consumer Recycled Materials
Aveda has been a leader in the area of sustainable packaging. One way it has reduced impact on the environment is through the use of post-consumer recycled materials.
Bottles, papers and boxes that have been used by a consumer, put out to curb, and then recycled are termed “post-consumer.” It differs from “pre-consumer” in that these materials have already fulfilled their original purpose.
Aveda’s Uruku lipstick remains a model for post-consumer recycled packaging. |
Delfausse says Aveda prefers to use polyethylene in its packaging because it has the least impact during its life on the environment. Lipstick case tooling, however, is not conducive to this resin. In order to minimize environmental impact, Aveda sought to use materials high in post-consumer recycled styrene.
“Where styrene might be something we wouldn’t ordinarily use, if we can use a high level of post-consumer recycled styrene, then we really haven’t affected the environment. We have taken something that could have gone to landfills and recaptured it and used it for lipstick. We were able to get 88 percent high impact, post-consumer recycled, styrene material, [for the Uruku project],” says Delfausse.
The secondary package of the Uruku lipstick is a clamshell made from molded pulp produced from 100 percent recycled newsprint. The sleeve, which added the finishing touch, is made from 100 percent recycled paperboard.
The use of post-consumer recycled materials in packaging is growing, says Suzanne Fenton, director of marketing for TricorBraun, St. Louis, MO. “We’ve got quite a few projects going on here. The biggest driver seems to be California legislation SB235 and SB1729,” she adds.
California has pushed sustainable packaging through legislation. Its Rigid Plastic Packaging Container (RPPC) Law is aimed at increasing the use of recycled plastic and minimizing the amount of plastic disposed in landfills.
According to The California Integrated Waste Management Board, “Compliance options for regulated RPPCs include containers that: are made from at least 25 percent post-consumer resin; are source-reduced by 10 percent; are reused or refilled at least five times; or have a recycling rate of 45 percent if it is a brand-specific or a particular type of RPPC.”
Choosing Materials Wisely
In keeping with another tenant of sustainable packaging, brand marketers are also sourcing materials with the least environmental impact over their lifecycle. In plastic, much of the buzz surrounds two resins: polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polylactic acid (PLA).
This product package, from Johnson & Johnson, utilizes recycled PET for the clear inner tray that holds the jar inside the carton. |
Schade continues, “Many companies are concerned that PVC packaging materials cannot be effectively recycled due to the many toxic additives used to soften or stabilize PVC, which can contaminate the recycling batch…It is a major source of dioxin, the most potent synthetic chemical ever tested.”
Many companies are phasing out PVC. For example, Limited Brands, Columbus, OH, completed its phase-out of PVC in its Bath and Body Works and Victoria’s Secret personal care products in 2003, switching to polyethylene terephthalate (PET, PETE).
Johnson & Johnson is also ending its use of the resin. “Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies will phase out all PVC used in its primary, secondary and tertiary packaging by year-end 2007,” says Iris Grossman, associate director of communications for Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies, New Brunswick, NJ.
“The resins we are using instead of PVC include PETE, PETG [polyethylene terephtalate glycol] and PLA. While there are some challenges in implementing alternative packaging solutions for our consumer products, none seem insurmountable. Many of the changes are cost neutral and at times even reduce costs,” Grossman adds.
Plastic From Corn
Not all resins are negatively perceived. PLA — one resin Johnson & Johnson will use in place of PVC — has received growing attention.
“The feedstock for PLA is field corn, which is renewable on an annual basis,” says Lisa Owen, global business leader of rigid packaging for NatureWorks LLC, Minneapolis, MN. NatureWorks produces the resin under the brand name NatureWorks PLA.
According to Owen, the manufacturing process requires 65 percent less fossil fuel to manufacture than traditional plastics. It also breaks down in composting facilities and is cost competitive with most petroleum-based plastics.
PLA can be injected molded and injection blow molded. It can also be used for other applications such as wipes, labels and shrink sleeves. NatureWorks began producing PLA in late 2001. Although it is still in its early stages, many believe PLA will increasingly be examined for beauty product applications.
PLA is not the only polymer derived from bio-based materials. Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM), Decatur, IL, has recently announced its acquisition of Groupe Lysac, along with its intent to develop bio-based products.
ADM will produce polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) biodegradable plastic. The primary raw material for PHA is corn-derived sugars. “PHA polymers are co-polymers, which enables their properties to be modified for various applications. PHAs with low levels of comonomer are harder like PLA, but with higher levels of comonomer they become softer and more flexible,” states Terry Stoa, ADM vice president, technology assessment. ADM stated that commercial production is not expected until 2008 or later, pending the construction of a plant in Iowa.
Source Reduction
Source reduction is another way companies work toward sustainability. There are two ways this can be done: Using less raw material or reducing the number of materials used. The latter improves the recyclability of a package.
Brand marketer Burt’s Bees, Durham, NC, saves on raw materials in its marketing campaigns. “We abstain from printing full catalogs, opting instead for inserts when we launch new products. This way, our customers can stay up-to-date without having to discard a catalog every time we launch new products,” says Camey Reid, Burt’s Bees senior product manager.
Renewable Energy
These lipstick cases — created through the injection molding process — utilize PLA. |
The practice is atypical, but it is more realistic to use renewable energy in manufacturing processes than one may think. The EPA terms energy generated either fully or partially from renewable sources “green power.” Currently, only 2 percent of America’s electric supply comes from green power, but that is changing.
According to a report released by the U.S. Department of Energy, voluntary green power purchasing is up more than 1,000 percent in five years.
Despite the probable cost increase compared to standard power, some large brand owners in the beauty industry have championed the use of renewable energy. Aveda works with a packaging supplier that uses wind power in the creation of paper and paperboard. Johnson & Johnson reported that in 2004, approximately 18 percent of its worldwide electricity needs were derived from “green power” sources such as wind, solar and biomass. And Liz Claiborne’s corporate headquarters in New Jersey operates exclusively on wind-generated electricity.
End-of-Life Management
According to Anne Johnson, director of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, there are two possible end-of-life scenarios that fit into a cradle to cradle framework. “A cradle to cradle technical system would be, for example, the recycling of paper or plastics. Those are engineered recovery systems where the materials are kept in current flow,” says Johnson. “The cradle to cradle biological system is where bio-based materials are used and then can be recovered through composting or other biological types of mechanisms.”
In keeping with a cradle to cradle system, brand marketers can design products that are easily recyclable. For example, in October, Burt’s Bees introduced its Cucumber and Chamomile, Lavender, and Grapefruit Complexion Mists packaged in recyclable aluminum containers that can be recycled curbside, says Reid.
If PLA resin finds its way to the beauty packaging industry en masse, the cradle to cradle biological system will be pertinent as well, since the corn-based resin can be composted.
Another end-of-life scenario that arguably has environmental benefits is combustion. Combustion facilities burn waste, which reduces the volume that enters landfills and generating electricity. “In Europe, incineration is a much more robust end-of-life practice for materials than in the U.S. That is a much more controversial end of life scenario,” says Johnson. While it does displace fossil fuels by using waste for energy, “from a materials point of view, incineration wouldn’t be a part of the vision for sustainability. For petroleum based plastics, it’s a fossil fuel-based resource that is used once and then incinerated,” she adds.
Sustainablity Can Be Challenging
Technology is continually improving and environmental awareness is growing. There are still hurdles to overcome when using environmentally friendly packaging practices, however.
The infrastructure remains a barrier for some packaging materials. “There’s a different story for every type of material,” says Johnson. “Infrastructure is very materials based.”
For example, she explains that corrugate is recycled at high levels. “That’s a material that is very well understood, well characterized, and is recovered at a very high rate. For a truly sustainable system, it’s not just the package itself, it’s the system it flows in,” says Johnson. “For corrugate, there’s a well established recycling system.”
Other packaging materials tell a different story. Johnson says that while PET plastic has huge potential, “recovery is the big barrier. It is recovered at a very low rate. People don’t recycle their PET bottles. We loose a huge amount of them to landfills.”
Using post-consumer recycled plastics can also pose technical challenges, although these challenges are easily overcome. Fenton of TricorBraun explains that post-consumer recycled plastic resins are usually beige or brownish-green in color. To overcome this, colorants are added to the bottle. Label adhesives may need to be more aggressive if labeling a bottle made with post-consumer recycled materials, Fenton explains, because contaminants may bloom to the surface.
Another way to tackle technical challenges associated with post consumer recycled materials is to make use of the co-extrusion process — essentially where a bottle is blown within a bottle within a bottle. The middle layer would contain the recycled resin. “That way you don’t have to worry about resin touching the product or effecting the decorating,” says Fenton.
Utilizing materials with consistent quality and cleanliness is paramount to a successful package. “The biggest issue is getting good quality recycled material,” says Delfausse of Aveda. “If you want to make things out of more recycled materials, you have to have a feedstock that is clean and consistent from lot to lot.”
Sometimes supply can be a hurdle in the United States. For example, “China is using recycled PET right now for carpet. It has drained some of the supply in the United States for recycled PET,” says Delfausse.
The Drivers
On a global scale, sustainable packaging is often driven by regulations. Where there are landfill shortages, legislation has quickly followed requiring better management of materials.
In the United States, however, finding space for landfills is not as critical an issue. California law has been a driver to a point, but according to Johnson, “the conversation in the United States is being driven by industry. There’s very little leadership at the state and federal levels. It’s quite a contrast to Europe and Japan. To a large degree, it’s being driven by brand owners and retailers that are saying this is important to them, they value it, and they would like their vendors to help them achieve these goals,” explains Johnson.
News From Bentonville
Sustainability has found a new champion: Wal-Mart. With its more than 68,000 suppliers, the corporate giant wields enormous influence over industry. Between January and November 2005, Wal-Mart unveiled a series of initiatives related to the environment.
“Our long range vision is to be supplied by 100 percent renewable energy, create zero waste and sell products that sustain resources and the environment,” Wal-Mart stated on its website. “In the short term, Wal-Mart will aggressively pursue multiple policies, including ones that decrease waste generation by 25 percent and increase fuel efficiency by 25 percent in our fleet of 7,100 tractors and 44,500 trailers.”
Wal-Mart’s vision is broad. Part of its aggressive plan includes environmentally conscious packaging. In another article on its website, Wal-Mart states, “We are working on sustainable packaging, cotton, wood, fish, produce, electronics, and the elimination of substances of concern in all merchandise. We have been discussing our intentions with government officials in the United States, China and beyond, and we are encouraging legislation that promotes a healthy future for everyone.”
A call to Wal-Mart to discuss its packaging initiatives further was not returned.
Today, sustainable packaging principles are increasingly entering the radar of the mainstream packaging industry. In fact, some believe it is the only way to approach packaging in tomorrow’s world.
“We are at a time where the growth of humanity and the limitations of resources are necessitating sustainable development. The demand for resources is going to be incredible and we will have to manage what we have much better than we currently do,” says Johnson. “I don’t think there’s any alternative.”
Side Bar: Extending Packaging Life
It happens. A company orders a large amount of bottles and the line is discontinued. Or it was the wrong package for the job. Or it was just too many pieces. For whatever the reason, brand marketers are often faced with the dilemma of what to do with their surplus packaging.
Should they trash it? Recycle it? Those are viable options, but many brand marketers choose instead to sell their surplus. It’s a way to extend the life of the package and recover some of the cost — McKernan calls this option “Precycling”.
“It is pre-consumer recycling as opposed to post consumer recycling. We take a product that has yet to be utilized that would otherwise be recycled or landfilled and we give it an additional life,” says Jim Lemmons, general manager of McKernan Packaging Clearing House in Reno, NV. “We estimate that two percent of total packaging created becomes surplus in somebody’s environment.”
Helping the environment can also pay dividends. “You are going to get a reasonable return on your dollar. Recyclers will pay you by the pound at whatever the current rate is for that particular commodity, which is typically minimal. In some cases, return is non-existent because many of the companies pay to have it taken out of their warehouses,” says Paul Reilly, general manager of Drug & Cosmetics in Delray Beach, FL.
The process is simple. According to Reilly, brand marketers will send in a list of excess items. A clearinghouse will make an offer, which typically includes freight costs. After the transaction is complete, the clearinghouse sells the product through web sites and other marketing materials.
Oftentimes, the packaging takes on an entirely different life. “For example, we purchased a large number of glass containers from a manufacturer that made them for the food industry. We ended up reselling them into a company that utilized them as a candle dispenser,” says Lemmons.
Selling surplus can be a win-win situation for all parties. It is good for the environment. It is good for the seller. And it is also good for the buyer. “99 percent of the cases, we bring in factory sealed cartons. They still carry the same manufacturer’s certificates of compliance. There’s no real difference in purchasing this than there would be in purchasing brand new goods, except that we typically sell them at a much lower price because we bought it at a much lower price,” says Reilly.