Australia’s packaging industry has for some time been facing increasing pressure from state and national governments, environmental lobby groups and consumers to reduce packaging waste and produce sustainable, eco-friendly packaging.
According to The Packaging Council of Australia, the packaging industry only contributes 10% of total urban solid waste and much work is being done in the industry to decrease the amount of packaging that ends up in landfill.
Lightweighting of plastic packaging, for instance, has reduced packaging material by an estimated 28% over the past 10 years and the move by industry to replace non-recyclable polymers with natural sustainable materials such as starches is lessening the environmental impact of packaging even further.
While government and industry initiatives such as The National Packaging Covenant are encouraging product stewardship and reducing packaging waste, scientific research by CSIRO is assisting industry to make informed decisions about sustainable packaging materials.
Renewable resources
Packaging companies Pro-Pac Packaging and Sancell are two companies supplying manufacturers with environmentally friendly packaging solutions.
Whereas traditional plastics made from fossil fuels are not biodegradable because their long polymer molecules are too large and tightly bonded to allow micro-organisms to decompose them, plastics made from wheat, potato or corn starch have molecules that are readily broken down my microbes.
The use of starch-based products in Pro-Pac Packaging’s Envirofill has allowed polystyrene loose-fill to be replaced with a natural material that is biodegradable.
A starch mixture made from wheat is processed and extruded into Envirofill to create a unique low-density protective packaging material that provides a high standard of protection, has a cost comparable to high-quality expanded polystyrene and is 100% biodegradable.
“The move from using polystyrene to renewable resources was natural and inevitable considering the pressure on industry to reduce greenhouse emissions and companies to produce evidence of utilising environmentally friendly packaging products,” Pro-Pac Packaging national operations manager Helen Bevan said.
“As well as producing these environmentally friendly packaging products, wherever possible we work closely with the manufacturers of other degradable products which can be used alongside our own in the marketplace.”
While resistant to humidity, Envirofill disintegrates in the presence of water, making it easily disposed of in the normal waste stream.
If composted it will break down into naturally occurring components, or it can be reused.
Green technology
Sancell’s EnviroRange of void-fill products, including Envirobubble, which was first brought to market in 2005, incorporates EPI Environmental Technology’s totally degradable plastic additives (TDPAs) to create strong, durable cushioning material that degrades in the presence of oxygen, heat, moisture and microbes within 12 to 24 months.
Envirobubble utilises Sancell’s oxo-biodegradable technology, a two-stage process in which TDPAs are added to commodity plastic resins, including polypropylene and polyethylene, and their co-polymers, in a way that ensures their oxidative degradation once they are discarded without compromising the product performance.
Oxidative degradation is triggered by the plastic’s contact with heat input and UV light, converting it to molecular fragments which are then broken down by micro-organisms into carbon dioxide, water and biomass.
“At first we encountered skepticism about our product because of assumed price hikes, decreased performance and recycling issues, but now we are getting more and more positive feedback as we enter more Enviro products onto the market,” Sancell spokesperson Skye Reilly said.
“Because we use a non-starch-based degradable additive, our EnviroRange can be recycled as well as decomposed, which is an advantage many people don’t realise.
“Sancell has chosen to absorb any cost increase brought on by using TDPAs and has ensured the lighter bubble maintains its performance requirements.”
Future of packaging
The packaging industry is a major focus of CSIRO’s scientific research and it is working with industry to create the next generation of green plastics from renewable resources.
“Our ultimate goal is to develop composites and nano-composites from renewable resources that will provide industry with the performance and durability required for the service condition of the application, as well as be biodegradable at the end of its service,” CSIRO scientist Dong Yang Wu explained.
“There are already examples of biodegradable plastics on the market, such as some loose-fill products.
“However these are what we refer to as low-end products because they don’t have stringent performance requirements.
“Creating high-end products from bio-plastics that are strong and durable inevitably means we turn off the biodegradability.”
CSIRO believes there is a gap in current research and packaging development as industry is focused on developing material without fully understanding the biodegradable mechanisms.
By working alongside microbiologists to determine the exact microbes that decompose particular plastics, CSIRO hopes to broaden the application of bio-plastics across the industry.