http://www.valpre.co.za/

Happy to be South African and to read something like this – Valpre recently opened the doors of its Heidelberg South Africa bottling plant to a number of environmental journalists and industry specialists. They were invited to investigate the plant and discover if the brand’s claims of sustainability were authentic and if the company is as sustainable, responsible and respectful as it wants you to believe. View the documentaries to see what they discovered and judge for yourself. – a GREEN plant with an ECO bottle.

Eco-labels, which convey information about the environmental and social impact of products, started establishing a market presence during the 1990s. Since then, rapid proliferation has resulted in confusion and redundancy.  Many companies are adopting a wait-and-see approach, while looking for clearer signals from consumers.  Despite the confusion, a growing number of leading companies are pursuing eco-labels in what they describe as a pre-competitive environment.

In-depth interviews with senior corporate sustainability executives were conducted for a new article from Deloitte, “Eco-labels: Positioning your brand, product portfolio and supply chain.”  This paper encapsulates those conversations, examines the current eco-labeling landscape and explores the ways companies can decide whether or not an eco-label strategy is appropriate for their organization.

Full pdf report available on http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_US/us/Services/additional-services/sustainability-climate-change/84cdeb68bb2a3310VgnVCM1000001a56f00aRCRD.htm?id=us_email_ES_TG_120116

a. Incinerators will not solve the pollution or health threat of our behaviour in Hong Kong

b. Why health? We are eating and disposing of 2 million white CANCER polystyrene boxes every day in HK and we are adding this to landfill and

c. the BENZENE seep into the soil and in addition to us ‘eating’ this stuff

d. we will end up paying for it as it seeps into the water table.

Time to ACTION and one of the chains have seen the light and although there is a lot to do in HK to preserve our health for the future, this is a little milestone.

This box in the picture is made from BAGASSE. What is Bagasse? Bagasse is the fibrous material left after extracting SUGAR from SUGAR CANE. Normally Bagasse is burnt and release loeads of carbon to the environment. This box can be buried in landfill and will biodegrade in less than 180 days (EN13432 compliant) AND is toxin/benzene free.

If washed into the ocean the sea life can eat this as it will not feed the VORTEX. It will disintegrate! It is harmless and it is made from agricultural waste. No incinerators are needed. It does not impact on human or animal life. We clean the environment up while we use it. We have a LOW environmental footprint on the environment.

HKGCC maybe you should write these into your guidelines to reduce the environmental impact on Hong Kong, preserve our health of our people and planet!!

a. the car looks cool and sexy – 10 points

b. On turning the ignition, I could not hear anything – it is so cool and quiet

c. the acceleration is amazing – I pulled out of Le Meridian Hotel in Pokfulam Hong Kong and could not believe how powerful this sexy beautiful car is

d. I pulled in behind a stinking fuming horrible mini-bus going up the hill and casting my eyes over the smog and fumes of the horrible stifling pollution in Hong Kong I dreamt for a minute that all vehicles could essentially be replaced with electric power and we may be able to berathe some in Hong Kong.

e. I slipped back into the parking lot at the Le Leridian and this was a truly amazing ‘kick’ to drive this sexy and super smart Tesla.

The only negative would be that the interior is leather! If the inventor is reading this out there – please be informed – there is amazing technology in beautiful new developments of recyled leather – solvent and chemical free!

A inspiring and stimulating close to a week in Hong Kong. I love the Tesla!

 
As winter approaches here in Europe, I find myself reminiscing on the hotter climate found in Asia, yes, I miss the warm oceans and one other thing, coconuts. Whenever I am in India I find myself drinking coconut water, as this is very much part of my yogic practice. I would walk to the yogashala (yoga studio) at 3:30 am in preparation for my practice to start with 80 other yogis at 4:00 am. A crazy hour to be awake, but a powerful one at that.

After practice, which is usually two hours long, I would walk outside and find a friendly face. This beaming face was none other than the man who sold coconuts. He would be parked with his pick up truck full of coconuts and a machete to slice open the tropical fruit. He would stand for hours as each yogi came out of the shala cutting the tops of the coconuts to reveal the most amazing thing ever – wonderful coconut water.

On average I would drink two a day, and through this ritual I came to realise that this wonderful water I was drinking had many benefits. This soon led me to learn more about coconuts and to explore the amazing benefits of the fruit. I learnt that in some cultures the coconut is the staple diet. Everything from the juice to the meat and the oil, can be used. According to the coconut research centre, “coconut is highly nutritious and rich in fibre vitamins and minerals”. It is also “classified as a “functional food” because it provides many health benefits beyond its nutritional content.”

I thought it is best to start by exploring the oil of the coconut. For a start, the oil is excellent to cook with. This is because it can be used at very high temperatures without becoming bad for our system. The oil at a high heat doesn’t turn rancid and therefore is a great substitute for other oils.

Organic Facts state that the benefits of coconut oil come from the “presence of lauric acid, capric acid and caprylic acid. The human body converts lauric acid into monolaurin”, that is claimed to help fight viruses such as influenza and herpes.

In addition to this, coconut oil has a large amount of vitamin E and K. Vitamin E is known to do wonders for our skin, helping it stay healthy, young and keep it glowing. It is also a fantastic vitamin to help restore cells in the body.

The best way to take coconut oil is by taking it raw; about two tablespoons per day. You can usually buy this at any health food store. The oil is cold pressed and therefore very thick. At first it is quite hard to take so I recommend adding it to any smoothies you make.

As well as helping us internally, coconut oil is extremely wonderful when we put it in our hair. This is another thing I learnt from being in India. It is a quick solution to ridding an itchy scalp and an easy way to help your hair become thicker and more shiny.

WRITTEN BY ANTON STEEMAN

This month I want to highlight some recent packaging developments from Japan. The fascinating aspect of Japan is, that they incorporate the most modern techniques, technologies and environmental insight and still are able to preserve the typical historical and natural image of their society, creating modern packages with a nostalgic look and feel. Very impressive indeed.

I choose to have a closer look at metal packaging as they are significantly different in design and structure from the ones generally common in the USA and Europe. Is in Europe and the USA the aluminium can dominating the beverage market, in Japan it is the 2- and 3-piece steel can.

Toyo Seikan Kaisha’s TULC can

I start with Japan’s leading canmaker Toyo Seikan Kaisha, which won the Can of the Year Award 2011 with a container manufactured with canmaking techniques that both significantly reduce the environmental impact and resource use.
The Birdy ready-to-drink coffee brand was launched in the growing Thai drinks market using Toyo Seikan’s 200ml sTULC can, a development of the TULC cans that have been used in the Japanese beer and beverage market for almost 20 years.

It is made from polyester-laminated steel with a ‘dry-DWI’ system that requires less lubricant, less washer chemicals, no extra internal coatings and no waste process water, compared with conventional drawn-and-wall-iron canmaking processes.

Compared with the canned coffees sold in huge volumes on the Japanese market, the Birdy can for Ajinomoto (Thailand) Ltd is also 30 percent lighter and its steel substrate enables the use of ‘tapping’ quality control systems.

Let’s look at the technical terms used. TULC stands for Toyo Ultimate Can, while sTULC is the steel version and aTULC the aluminium version. Dry-DWI signifies a dry process of the conventional drawn and wall-ironed two-piece cans.
A few words to illustrate the mentioned canmaking processes.

Manufacturing Process of TULC
TULC (Toyo Ultimate Can) is a 2 piece can which constitutes drastic improvements in environmental friendliness which were achieved by reviewing the fundamentals of materials properties and manufacturing processes. TFS, tin free steel, laminated with PET film on the interior and exterior surfaces, is processed into cups, similar how DWI cans are processed. Then, it is drawn, stretched and ironed to reduce the thickness of the can-body side walls (stretch-draw-ironing process). However, unlike DWI cans, no coolant (lubricant) is used during the can-body forming process, thus eliminating the need for coolant rinsing, and waste water treatment. Due to the internal layer of PET, inside lacquer coating is not required, hence significantly reducing CO2 emissions, a byproduct of the internal lacquer curing process.

Manufacturing Process of 2 Piece Cans (TULC)

1. Uncoiler — Uncoil coil for feeding to the Cupping Press.
2. Cupping Press — Forms cup from coil.
3. Redraw Press — Stretch, draws and irons cup to form can-body and can-bottom.
4. Heat Setting Oven — Removes the distortion of PET film by heating.
5. Trimmer — Trims upper portion to obtain the required height and check for pin holes.
6. Printer — Prints a design on the exterior surface and applies varnish.
7. Curing Oven — Aligns cans and cures ink.
8. Necker Flanger — Narrows opening to form neck, and creates flange.
9. Inspection Machine — Inspects for defects on the interior and exterior surfaces.
10. Palletizer — Loads cans on pallets and wraps with shrink film.

Ironing of conventional DWI Cans
Material (in the form of a cup) is punched, using a punch sleeve, through a set of ironing rings. Pushing the cup through the narrow gap between the punch sleeve and the ironing dies forms the cup, by ironing the cup walls into thinner and further extruded walls, into the can-body. Coolant is sprayed in order to lubricate and cool the tools and materials during this process, thus rinsing is required after moulding.

Ironing of DWI Cans

Stretching and Ironing of TULC
“Stretch-draw-ironing”, a moulding method developed from the “tension and bending” process, is used to iron materials while applying a back tension. PET film laminate acts as lubricant to allow moulding without the use of coolant, allowing for a decrease in material usage, and thus reducing environmental burdens.

Stretching and Ironing of TULC

Daiwa Can Company’s Wine Bottle-Can

The second example is from another leading Japanese canmaker, Daiwa Can Company. A metal bottle designed to accurately resemble a traditional wine bottle caught the imagination of the participants at The Canmaker Summit in Istanbul, who voted for it to win the Delegates’ Choice prize in the Cans of the Year Awards 2011.

The Daiwa wine bottle-can for winemaker Monde Shuzo’s Petit Monteria brand, is a polyester-coated two-piece bottle-can incorporating a slimmer body and a bespoke shoulder shape to mimic wine bottles traditionally used for wines from the Bordeaux region of France.

Daiwa Can Company was the first company to introduce metal bottle-cans with resealable caps in 2000. Daiwa’s bottle-cans have been a major commercial success in Japan in a wide variety of end-markets. The Daiwa range currently includes several product types.

The 170ml WORC (wide open re-sealable can) is a laminated, necked, and threaded 3-piece steel bottle with a large diameter aluminium closure. The metal bottle can be hot filled, pasteurised or heat-sterilised. The filled bottles are then double seamed with a 52mm diameter food end. Established food can lines can be adapted to run this type of package.

The alternative is the, what is called, New Bottle, a three piece laminated 290 to 500ml aluminium bottle. The bottle-cans are lightweight, have a complete barrier against oxygen, bacteria and light, offer long shelf life and are infinitely 100% recyclable. A high degree of differentiation and added value is created through printing both the bottle-can body as well as the closure.
Bottle-cans are suitable for ready-to-drink markets such as coffee, tea, soup, wine, beer, functional and soft drinks.

The interesting thing is that Daiwa also improved the design of the metal caps.
By reducing the number of knurls from standard 23 to 17, the upper part of the metal caps have larger concavity and convexity, which reduces slipperiness on the fingertips when opening the can and enforces the overall grip.

Furthermore the caps have 34 bead lines for enforced grip of the fingertips.

So far the recent developments in metal cans manufacturing. But there is more.

One of the attractive aspects of the Japanese beverage market is the obvious willingness of the consumer goods companies to engage in sophisticated printing techniques, resulting in the most beautiful beverage cans I have ever seen. Just some examples in the next article.

One more diagram, for the ones who like to know.

Note: All illustrations courtesy Toyo Seikan and Daiwa Can.

In addition to all the particles and toxic gases floating through our city’s air, there’s a lot of misinformation, too. We tracked down the experts and combed research reports to debunk common myths about air pollution. We’re not gonna lie—some of the stats, and the general apathy towards the issue, are pretty scary. But since staying indoors all day isn’t an option, arming ourselves with knowledge is the next best thing, and it’s the first step toward a long-term solution. The air itself may not be crystal clear now (or ever) but we hope you come to see the situation a little more clearly.

China, rather than local sources, is the main reason for all of our air pollution problems.

False.

Hongkongers shy away from taking responsibility for the air pollution problem afflicting our city. We have an easy scapegoat—which to argue that it’s factories and other sources on the mainland that emit most of the pollutants that invade our air, and that Hong Kong itself only plays a minor role. That is definitely not true—just look at the statistics.

A research study conducted by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2007 showed that local sources are the primary factors contributing to air pollution 53 percent of the time. Regional sources, on the other hand, are crucial influences on air pollution only 36 percent of the time.

At a local level, exhaust from vehicles (cars, trucks, buses stopped end-to-end in traffic) and marine transportation (yes, all those container ships constantly chugging through our waters) are major sources of pollutants. It is difficult for pollutants to disperse, especially in such a densely populated city, where they stagnate along the roads, trapped in by high-rise buildings that create urban canyons. At the same time, Hong Kong’s power plants, from Tuen Mun’s to Lamma’s—which burn coal in order to generate electricity—also plays a major role in dirtying our air. - Grace Tsoi

Christian Masset -