Improving the Shelf Life of Fresh-Cut Fruits and Vegetables

6 February, 2010 · by Anton Steeman · http://bestinpackaging.com/2010/02/06/improving-the-shelf-life-of-fresh-cut-fruits-and-vegetables/

According to information from the AMI (agricultural market information service) in Bonn/Germany, the world produces nearly 1.5 billion tonnes of fruit and vegetables, of which 800 million tonnes vegetables and nearly 700 million tonnes fruits.
Fruit and vegetable production levels have increased steadily over the past few years. Apples, grapes, oranges, melons and bananas are the world’s leading fruit varieties, accounting for around 60% of the global production. The range of vegetables is more diverse with the three leading varieties (tomatoes, head cabbage, cucumbers) accounting for only 30% of the total production volume. More than 10% of the global production of major fruit varieties are traded cross-border. For fresh vegetables, this figure is only 3% to 4%. The EU is the world’s largest importing region for fresh fruit and, if trade between the EU member states is taken into account, for fresh vegetables as well. Otherwise, the EU ranks second to the USA as an importer of fresh vegetables.

The importance of the fresh produce market segment showed this week when Berlin was all set for the international fresh produce sector’s premier event of the year, the “Fruit Logistica”, the leading international meeting place of the fresh produce trade, which assembled some 2,300 exhibiting companies and 55,000 professional visitors from across the entire fresh produce chain, including global players as well as small and medium-sized suppliers from all around the world.

Fruit and vegetables play an important role in healthy nutrition and are high on the list of consumer priorities. However the major obstacle of purchasing ready-to-eat fresh-cut fruits and vegetables is their short shelf life, leading to quick degeneration and decomposition of the product and undesirable look and negative palatability.
Fruit and vegetables are living products undergoing a ripening and at the end an ageing process, in which the plant tissue is broken down. The products undergo various biological processes, which also continue after the products have been harvested. The processes cause gradual changes in the quality.

Innovations in packaging technology can overcome this challenge by providing extended shelf life and reducing accumulation of product decomposition liquids in the packaging bottom. An important part of the process is the product’s respiration, in which the product consumes oxygen and expels carbon dioxide, water and heat. In this way, carbohydrates and other substances important to the product’s freshness, taste and health quality are broken down.
Furthermore fruit and vegetables expel ethylene. Ethylene is a gas which accelerates the ripening process in fruit and vegetables, even in small quantities. The ethylene liberation and sensitivity to ethylene varies from product to product.

The correct packaging enables processors to pack fresh-cut fruit and vegetables and extend their shelf life. The important parameters for this shelf life extension are temperature, moisture and a modified atmosphere (oxygen, carbon dioxide and ethylene). Packaging can really make a difference. If both temperature and packaging are optimal, ageing of fruit and vegetables can be slowed down with up to more than 800%.

As was expected Fruit Logistica had some interesting packaging innovations on offer. I just made a selection of what I thought to be exceptional. Let’s walk around the various booths and describe the best. Here we go, starting with fresh vegetables.

Some time ago I wrote on this blog an article: “Artfully ‘Green’ Packages for Fresh Greens” describing the innovations of two US (organic) fresh vegetables growers, namely Tanimura & Antle Fresh Foods Inc and Earthbound Farm. As a consequence I will leave them out of this overview, although they certainly are worthwhile to look at.

Modified Atmosphere Packaging
Modified Atmosphere Packaging is a way of extending the shelf life of fresh food products. The technology substitutes the atmospheric air inside a package with a protective gas mix. The gas in the packaging helps ensure that the product will stay fresh for as long as possible.
The MAP process frequently decreases the oxygen in the package from 20% to 0% in order to slow down the growth of aerobic life forms and the speed of oxidation reactions. The removed oxygen can be replaced with a mixture of carbon dioxide, which can lower the pH and inhibit the growth of bacteria. MAP packaging is used for products as diverse as red meat, seafood, pasta, fresh cuts of fruits and salads and a wide variety of other food products.

The Israeli company Hefestus Ltd., established in 1993, takes the MAP technology a step further with its SLB – Shelf Life Booster technology. The Hefestus’ MAP sealers have only one fully automatic vacuum-free SLB sealing head. Without creating a mechanical vacuum the system protects texture and appearance, so that even the most delicate “vacuum banned” goods can be handled, extending the product’s shelf life without the need for preservatives or freezing, thereby enabling storage and delivery of goods chilled or at room temperature.

Longer shelf life with PeakFresh packaging
The Section Life Sciences & Technology of the Noordelijke Hogeschool in Leeuwarden/the Netherlands, did some research, commissioned by the Dutch company Freeland, about the characteristics of the Peakfresh packaging. The research results showed that the vegetables tested (broccoli, butter lettuce and iceberg lettuce) stayed fresh, crisp and green for longer and the weight loss was limited compared to conventional packaging.

Peakfesh is said to be bio-degradable (no material specification is given) and has permission to also be used for organic and EKO products.

Considering that one third of all fresh vegetables never reach the consumer, PeakFresh might play an important role in improving this situation. Butter lettuce and iceberg lettuce will have a much longer shelf life in the shops, but also at home, where consumer might only use half of the lettuce and wants to save the rest for later. Butter lettuce has a bad name when it comes to shelf life.

Basically Peakfresh bags can be used for nearly all fruit and vegetables. Sorry to say, but there is little technical information available from the company, neither from the technical institute, which carried out the research. As a consequence I am not able to judge the correctness of what I’m stating here. It is just hearsay, mixed with third hand promotion.

Beverage Cans Made From Paperboard

10 January, 2012 · by Anton Steeman · http://bestinpackaging.com/2012/01/10/beverage-cans-made-from-paperboard/

Shatler’s Caipirinha in a CartoCan

In June last year, I wrote that “the revolution in the bottling industry is on”. It seems to be working out that way, as recently we have seen some very interesting developments in beverage cans. No, not the well-known metal can, but beverage cans made from paperboard. These developments are pioneering in the aseptic can as well as in the paperboard packaging field.

After the, in Germany developed, Cartocan for 250ml energy drinks entered the market in 2010, a new Euro patent application (EP 2017178) emerged, relating to an identical drinks can made from paperboard. The third development, although not for beverages, but for motor oil, is from Sonoco UK.

Kirei no Susume, launched by Shiseido on July 21, 2010, is packaged in a Cartocan

Why these developments in paperboard cans for liquids? Beverage cans, traditionally made from metal, aluminium or tinplate, have become more expensive over the last years, whereas paperboard has remained consistently cheaper. But there is one more reason.
Paperboard cans are favoured by the European packaging laws. The paperboard can is classified as ‘Ecological Favourable Packaging’, a German typification in its “packaging laws”, which add 25 eurocents (a refundable packaging tax deposit) to the price of all metal cans sold by beverage resellers.

It is not surprising of course that all three are European developments. In the USA we don’t see a packaging tax, refundable or not, to protect the environment and stimulate recycling, and consequently we don’t see, as we see in Europe, the implementation of ‘packaging laws’ stimulating developments of more environmental friendly packaging formats.

Let’s have a detailed look at these three paperboard beverage cans.

The Composite Can
Paperboard hollow bodies aren’t new. Since ages we use the convulgated winded paperboard cans or tubes as we call them, but never for beverages. We all know the composite can or paperboard can used for dry products and sometimes for pastes, such as creams, balms and oil-based products.

The EcoPak made by Chicago Paper Tube & Can Co Inc

Although often seen as a simple packaging format for simple products (see my post: “EcoPak and Ecocentric – What’s in a Name?” ). there are some examples of brilliant design using the composite can in the upscale market. One of these examples is the Biznaga range of Spanish Gourmet specialties.

The composite can or paperboard can or tube is mostly a round container comprised of a body with two ends made from a variety of materials. The packaging can be produced in many shapes and sizes. The container body is made from paper, and various liner materials to achieve barrier requirements and often completed with a printed label for packaging graphics.

The CartoCan
The new paperboard can, which is made by Michael Hörauf Maschinenfabrik GmbH in Donzdorf / Germany and marketed under the brand name Cartocan, is a highly innovative and brand-appropriate take on the ubiquitous 250ml energy metal drink cans.
CartoCan is the new, high-quality packaging alternative to the tinplate and aluminium can. The slim, cylindrical, trendy format permits a clear positioning of the product at the point of sale.

With the CartoCan, as packaging format, Michael HörAuf offers a complete system for packaging production, sterilization and filling of beverages and food with a shelf life of 12 months. In addition to the aseptic filling of the CartoCan, the company ensures that the mild heat treatment retains the taste, texture, aroma and colour of the product as it undergoes, it claims, optimal processing.

Wood fibre is under ecological conditions a natural renewable and recyclable raw material. The properties of the material along with the environmentally friendly manufacturing and recycling process ensure that the CartoCan supports a brand’s environmental policies.
The CartoCan can be filled with from flavoured milk drinks to tea, from fruit juices to energy drinks.

Full system supplier IPI s.r.l. in Perugia/Italy is one of the system partners for CartoCan and provides the material, which is especially developed for this product. This ensures a full compatibility between equipment and material.

The multi-layer structure is designed in order to produce a protective barrier for the products to be filled. Its structural integrity guarantees preservation of the contents of the product during its entire shelf-life.

Cartocan cans (capacity 200 to 250 ml) feature carton barrier laminates (aluminium or EVOH layers inside and outside are optional), flexographic printing, sleeve material printed in 5 colours, and a wide choice of designs.
Cartocan can be recycled in the same manner as milk cartons.

The Keienburg Paperboard Can
Recently a new Euro patent application (EP 2017178 in German) emerged, relating to an identical drinks can made from paperboard. There is not yet an official brand name available for this can, so I call it, for the time being, after the inventor Günther Keienburg.

Let’s first look at the abstract of EP 2017178 (A2): “The casing comprises a parallelly coiled layer of cellulose-containing material in the form of cardboard and/or pasteboard, and a liquid-proof functional layer. An inner casing surface facing content of the container includes an ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer barrier layer with a weight of 10 grams per meter square. A container wall includes a four layer sulphate cardboard with a weight of 250 grams per meter square. The material comprises polyethylene and polyamide coatings”.

It’s a development of Keienburg Agentur für Verpackung GmbH in Rhauderfehn / Germany, which, alongside the cans, offers production units to erect the can body. This gives drinks manufacturers the ability to make the paperboard cans at source, eliminating the high costs for transportation and storage of empty metal cans.
To produce the cardboard can only board reels and can tops and ends are delivered to the fillers. One reel of 4 feet diameter and 0.5 feet width is equivalent to 4.000 cans. The production units offered by Keienburg are said to be capable of producing in excess of 40,000 paperboard cans every single hour.
Currently used filling lines only need simple modifications to process the paperboard cans as standard aluminium pull up can tops are used. This newly introduced production system is said to save up to 30% of the production costs.

The difference between the Cartoncan and the Keienburg can is that the Cartoncan uses an adhesive tape to cover and close the drinking hole in the paperboard top of the can, while Keienburg uses the standard original metal can ends, creating an almost identical beverage can as we know it. This difference in can construction is important as the Keienburg can is designed for carbonised beverages, just like its metal carbon copy.

The Sonoco rigid paperboard can for motor oils
Last month Sonoco, the world’s oldest and largest producer of paperboard cans, also entered, via its UK subsidiary, the market of paperboard cans for liquids. However not for beverages as the former two, but for motor oils.

Sonoco’s solution was a rigid paper container with metal ends that offers the same product appearance and protection for liquids, but at a lower cost and using far more sustainable materials. According to Sonoco, the screw-top, paperboard can is durable enough to last the required product’s four year shelf life.
Furthermore the company claims that the rigid paper container demonstrates significant economic and environmental improvements in its life cycle assessment when compared to the steel can that is generally used in the motor oil market. Not only does it result in a 27% reduction in material weight inputs and reduces the customer’s shipping and handling costs, it also results in a 34% reduction in energy inputs, a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and a 2% reduction in chemical bad actors.

The Future
Now start thinking. Use your imagination.
Some months ago I wrote about the new Evero Aseptic paperboard bottle from Tetra. Although I think Sonoco is using its convulgated winded paperboard tubes, cutting them in the required sizes, HörAuf and Keienburg are rolling a paperboard sheet in a similar way as Tetra is doing for its Evero.

The Keienburg can uses aluminium ends as are commonly used for 3-piece metal tins. Tetra is using a plastic shoulder/neck which is glued into the paperboard body.
You can see that the Keyenburg paperboard can assembled with a shoulder/neck piece, results in a paperboard can with an aluminium or plastic bottom end and a shoulder/neck, emerging into a full bottle with screw cap facility.

Compare also the development of the Aisa can, I wrote about in my article “Tetra Evero Aseptic and AisaCan – The Revolution of Multi-Material Bottles”

A fascinating evolution in beverage bottles and cans is awaiting us.

Playing With Paperboard – Origami In Folding Cartons

30 May, 2011 · by Anton Steeman ·http://bestinpackaging.com/2011/05/30/playing-with-paperboard-origami-in-folding-cartons/

The recent past has seen very interesting creations in folding cardboard or better still folding paperboard. It is as if the Japanese origami culture and the traditional Chinese paper cutting have influenced many a packaging designer. This means that some packages made from paperboard have the most fantastic structures, sometimes complex, sometimes brilliantly simple, catching the eye of the consumer by their adventurous shapes. I made a (not complete) overview of the most eye-catching paperboard packages, not in terms of graphics, but in terms of structure.
In several articles I give a range of examples. There are many more, too many to publish all, some so gripping that it looks like art.

Enjoy the inventiveness of the designer and use them as bases for your own creative ideas.

Wu Xing Fortune Cake
The innovative New Year gift packaging, the Pineapple Cake Packaging, designed by Taiwanese designers Amone Hsieh and Feng-Chuan Chen, is more than just a box containing a delicious treat. Inspired by ancient Chinese astrology and the five elements (Wu Xing), the typical Taiwanese flavours and Chinese traditions are blended into this red pentagon shape. Each side represents an element and its corresponding animal: gold – chicken, wood – dog, water – pig, fire – goat and earth – cow.

In addition, this multi-purpose box, manufactured by HongLuBao Co Ltd. in Taipei, Taiwan, is also a traditional Chinese paper cutting, so it can be used as decoration during Chinese New Year to bring fortune and luck. And each of the five sides can be used as bookmarks, surrounding you with luck and fortune all year round!

The Wu Xing Fortune Cake packaging was an iF Award winner at the Interpack 2011.

But it isn’t only the Japanese or Chinese who are able to cut paperboard in the most fantastic way. Let’s go to Iceland and meet Helga Björg to see what she designed for Örflögur.

Örflögur Microchips
Örflögur microchips are healthy, no fat potato chips. They are not fried, but baked and dried and salted with the sea. A pure product of nature. This Icelandic brand of chips eliminated the problem of the loud crunchy noise of chips bags, as well as the dirty hands digging into shallow chip bags. Its packaging is a box that folds out into a bowl.

The box which contains the Microchips transforms into a bowl when it is opened, making them easier to share with friends. Once the chips are consumed, the box’s interior graphics reveal information (in English and Icelandic) about the potato and where it is grown.

The box is designed by Björg í Bú in Reykjavik, a design bureau that focuses on designing Icelandic products and using the opportunities which can be found at Icelandic companies. The design bureau is run by Edda Gylfadóttir, Guðrún Hjörleifsdóttir, and Helga Björg.

This chips box was designed in collaboration with innovation-centre við Innovit, and Matís, the Icelandic food and biotech R&D, and funded by the Icelandic Centre for Research (Rannis)

From Iceland we go to Kansas in the USA and from potato chips to cinnamon.

Ceylora Cinnamon
An identical box structure we see for Ceylora Cinnamon, an all natural cinnamon which is packaged in an all natural container.

Designed by graphic designer, Dominic Flask of Danger Dom Studios in Hays, Kansas/USA, the packaging for dried cinnamon sticks, is made with paper only, and using no glue, the package compliments the product, folded into the shape of an apple.

From the cinnamon in Kansas to such a dull packaging format as milk in cartons, but the all-natural milk from Organic Valley is an exception. Perusing the milk aisle at the supermarket is rarely a memorable event. Existing milk jugs and cartons are not exiting packages catching the eye of the consumer. The current trend of “going organic” creates, however, an exciting market ripe for beautiful and environmentally responsible packaging for otherwise basic commodities such as milk.

Dressing Up Tetra Pak Milk Packs
Achieving an environmentally responsible package starts with the material. Tetra Pak is made entirely from recycled and/or renewable resources that are also 100% recyclable. The designers applied an uncoated, untreated paper to the outside of the container, adding a distinguished, earthy aesthetic that not only captures the attention of the environmentally conscious consumer but stands out on the shelf amid other cartons as well. The aseptic component of the Tetra Pak allows the Organic Valley shelf-stable line of organic milk to be distributed and stored without the use of refrigeration.

Designed by Lisa Ellerin, Alicia Prentice, Olivia Duval, Chris Yoon, Amy Ross, and Blake Sanders, this concept, done as a part of the 2011 IOPP (Institute of Packaging Professionals) Repackaging challenge, offers a break from the monotony of the milk aisle through colour systems, form and material.

From the USA back to Europe, where a Belgian designer put French champagne into a nice folding ice bucket.

Clicq’Up – An Origami Inspired Design Object
This year at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile (Milan, Italy, April 12-17), during Veuve Clicquot’s Milan Yellow Week, Veuve Clicquot showed their latest design collaboration, “Clicq’Up”, an origami inspired design object by Belgian designer Mathias van de Walle.

Clicq’Up is the first foldable Champagne ice bucket and is based on a concept of origami on ice, marrying form and function to create a contemporary, reusable design object that can be folded for easy transportation, set up, and storage.

For the last design of this article we go to Germany.

A Shape That Hadn’t Been Used Before
STI – Gustav Stabernack GmbH, in Lauterbach, Germany, had the task to develop a packaging concept that could be assembled by a machine, was of a shape that hadn’t been used before, and could automatically adapt to the volume of material it was holding.

Using diagonal slits, a pre-assembled, mechanically produced, foldable square box is able to adapt to different volumes.
By changing the straight, diagonal slits to a concave or convex alignment, a softer shape can be developed and a slit window can be harmoniously introduced. The easy to use, re-sealable opening mechanism is the finishing touch on this packaging concept.

Innovations in Food Take-Out Packaging

13 March, 2012 · by Anton Steeman ·http://bestinpackaging.com/2012/03/13/innovations-in-food-take-out-packaging/

Double-Drawer Box

Since the days of the fish-and-chips wrapped in old newspapers and the Chinese food scooped into unappealing plastic trays, quite some has change. And the developments are continuing, as take-away or take-out meals are the big trend in these years of disciplining our personal financial resources.

Note: For the sake of diversity on my blog I decided to write between part 02 and 03 of the Overview of Dispensing Caps, about Take-Away Packaging. Don’t worry, after this article I will post part 03 of the dispensing caps.

Traditionally supermarkets and convenience stores have expanded their foodservice platform and built upon consumer desire for convenient and quality ready-to-eat meals. But a recent market survey conducted by Technomic concluded that consumers are sourcing prepared meals from a wider range of retail foodservice operations than they were two years ago, many times at the expense of restaurants. Eating-out is transformed into taking-out.

Consumers increasingly choose take-out as a faster, more convenient and often less expensive foodservice option. The survey by Technomic revealed that 57% of consumers now order take-out at least once a week, compared to just 49% of consumers polled just three years ago.

Sticks’n’Sushi take-out box

To keep sales afloat, many restaurants turned to the take-out sector for new revenue streams. An influx of take-home meals from both chain and independent restaurant brands has hit the market place. These value-driven, quasi gourmet-meals help offset lagging restaurant sales, but, of course, all under one condition. The ‘gourmet-meal’ has to be packed in a packaging at a same level as the gourmet-meal itself.

I am not talking here about the packaging for junk-food from the fast-food restaurants, nor the (industrially) prepared meals to put into a microwave. I want to highlight the possibilities of packaging for hand-crafted take-away gourmet-meals offered by delicatessen shops and restaurants, which as an alternative to eating-out, supply a quality meal to take home and enjoy.

As said the era of food wrapped in old newspapers and scooped into cheap plastic trays doesn’t fit in this market segment. Quality and gourmet are the keywords and consequently the packaging has to transmit these keywords. At the other hand the junk-food or fast-food sector has long year experience with packaging its products for take-out, unattractive as the packaging might be.

Guatruck lunch box

Asian food is one of the most popular dishes with an extensive expertise in take-out packaging. And I must say with quite some creativity. Their dishes in itself are beautifully arranged and even sometimes a work of art and they understand that the packaging has to be at a similar level.

For this article I made a round-trip through some Asian countries and collected the most interesting designs. Not all examples I present here are specifically for take-out food, but they have a design and construction which easily could be adapted for this purpose. I just want to give some ideas.

Some years ago I wrote about a packaging with a Danish design for take-out Japanese sushi. It still is one of my favourites, so we start with a repeat.

Sushi with Danish design
Sushi, the famous Japanese dish from decorative fresh fish products, has not only to be superb of taste, but it has to be much more. It has to appeal as much to the eye as to the palate. It has to be fresh, perfect of taste and please the eye. In other words the packaging complements the perfection.

“Sticks ‘n’ Sushi”, a restaurant in Copenhagen, packs its dishes in decorative black trays, stackable in the take-away package made from high quality white paperboard. The design is from Pais Design and the material is converted by Jens Johanson A/S both in Denmark.
The paperboard material is Frövi White from Korsnäs with a coated white reverse side. As the total surface of the reverse side is printed in black the white coating of the paperboard gives it even a deeper black. The packaging comes in four dimensions. The largest one is made from 410 gr/m2 and can handle a weight up till 3 kg.

The fish cut-outs on the handle and stackability of the thermoformed trays are in harmonious symbiosis with the product. The extra creasing in the side of the box makes it easy to insert and remove the tray of sushi. The black interior of the packaging as well as the black tray are perfectly showing off the colourful sushi.

Indonesia – Sta-pack (Stacking Packaging)
In the same style as the Danish design is the Sta-Pack created by PT Bukit Muria Jaya/BMJ in Indonesia. Not quite the same, as the Sta-Pack consists of several separate units with an added handle. It certainly is a nice and elegant solution as fast food packaging, especially for the take-away market of upscale meals.

Stapack has unique characteristics. It adopted and modified the characteristics of the Tupperware elements and applied them to paperboard that can easily be folded saving storage space. In other words a stack of nested Sta-Pack can sit on the counter of a delicatessen shop and filled upon request. Each unit can hold a separate dish and only needs one handle for lifting as the wings of the individual boxes are closed until they locks. fter which it is ready to be taken-out.

The Sta-Pack is made from food grade CDWB 230 gr/m2 and designed by Irvan Hermawan and M. Aidil Saputra.

Indonesia – Double-Drawer Box
We stay with the Japanese kitchen, but now in Indonesia. In Indonesia, (fast-food) take-out Japanese dishes generally are packed in Styrofoam-based packaging. Like Chinese take-out food every box or tray holds one selection of the Japanese meal, such as sushi, bento, sukiyaki, maki, etc.
PT. Bentoel Prima created a Double-Drawer box, more or less in the same style as the Danish sushi packaging. It is a paper-based packaging made from printed ivory paperboard of 260 gr/m2 and water based varnished.

The dimensions of the packaging are 12x12x7.5cm. The packaging is designed by NTM Development Team.

Singapore – Rice Dumpling Box
I wrote about this packaging in a previous article, not long ago, but it is such a beautiful construction that it can easily be adapted to take-out meals.
Originally the Rice Dumpling Box was created by Starlite Printers (Far East) Pte in Singapore to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival, otherwise also known as the Rice Dumpling Festival or the Duanwu Jie that falls on the 5th day of the 5th month in the Chinese Lunar calendar.
The box is designed to resemble a rice dumpling, complete with a string. At the same time, its design also brings back memories as the packaging is printed on uncoated kraft simulating paper bags that were used commonly in the seventies and eighties. In addition the packaging also instils the value of conserving traditions. The graphics design of the box shows activities relating to the festival such as dragon boat racing and the making of rice dumplings. The box is able to pack six small rice dumplings.
This product is made with solid unbleached sulphate paperboard. The printing is done on the uncoated kraft surface to give the box a nostalgic look, the colour scheme used had also been limited to black as the dominating colour to simulate the nostalgic look of paper bags. The package is fastened with a string just like a rice dumpling, the string also serves as a handle.

By releasing the string and stretching the side of the packaging, its content can be accessed freely. As the packaging is not enclosed fully, it allows air exchange which is important to maintain freshness of the rice dumpling. The inner surface of the box is laminated with a layer of OPP film to prevent the seepage of oil from the rice dumpling into the board thereby allowing the packaging to maintain a clean look.

Philippines – Sustainable Origami-Inspired Food Box
Often a proper prepared take-out meal has a side-dish. Dump it in an unattractive plastic tray or do it as the Filipinos do. You don’t believe this story, but it’s true.
In August 2011, Guactruck positioned its design-focused mobile food truck in Manila serving Mexican inspired Filipino rice dishes. Junk-food? The owners wanted the packaging design to focus on creativity and aesthetics, as well as highlight the environmental aspect commonly associated with packaging. Not quite what you expect from the fast-food sector.
They came up with a food packaging that incorporates sustainability in three ways.
Using only one piece of paperboard, the simple origami inspired design resembles a bud blossoming into a flower.
The material they used is paper, no glue or plastic, making it biodegradable and easier to recycle.

And thirdly they believed that they are responsible for everything that comes out of their truck, may it be waste, food or packaging. Therefore, they highly encourage their customers to return the packaging with the incentive of obtaining a free meal in exchange for ten returned packages. The returned packaging will then be sent to the proper channels for recycling. This way, they created not only awareness on the issue of sustainable packaging and recycling, but also cultivated a habit of conscious and conscientious consumerism.
An amazing fast-food packaging of high quality and worth following the lead.

New Applications for the Paper Stand-up Pouch

4 June, 2012 · by Anton Steeman ·http://bestinpackaging.com/2012/06/04/new-applications-for-the-paper-stand-up-pouch/

Two years ago I wrote about a new development as a result of a collaboration of some Brazilian packaging companies. The PaperPouch was a joint effort of Ibema, Tradbor, Dow Brasil and ESPM. Although paper isn’t a revolutionary material for pouches and bags, it is in terms of a stand-up pouch as no paper had been stiff enough to let a pouch stand upright independent of the filling.

The stiffness of the paper causes PaperPouch to stand “on its feet” besides the fact of giving it unique appearance and touch for the world of pouches in the national market. Polyethylene, by its part, is responsible for physical integrity and content protection. The possibilities of adding new materials are practically infinite, making it possible to offer the necessary protection for the diverse uses.

The ‘plasticity’ of polyethylene allied to other materials addable through co-extrusion or lamination enable PaperPouch to store dry grains, cereals, grain coffee, animal food, powdered cleaning products and the like.

Since the development went public, I haven’t heard or seen any application for this interesting packaging format. Until recently when two, completely different, US companies brought their products to the market in a PaperPouch-like stand-up pouch. Whether they are legitimate applications of the original PaperPouch or (illegitimate) copiesI don’t know as the companies in question decline to name the suppliers of the paper stand-up pouch. Whatever the case it is an interesting and promising development in stand-up pouches.

Brad’s Raw Chips and Gummy Owls of Green Forest Nutrition. When you look at the products, the stand-up pouch in paper is a perfect fit for these products.

Brad’s Raw Chips, Hot Kale, claim to be the ‘world’s healthiest chips’. The company states that the chips (or crisps) are dehydrated and neither baked nor fried, and are said to retain healthy, active enzymes and nutrients that aid digestion. These vegan raw chips are also gluten-free.

Green Forest Nutrition introduced Gummy Owls, described as ‘the world’s first family friendly weight loss gummies’. They’re said to be made with a yam super fibre (konjac mannan), clinically proven to safely reduce body weight and fat in adults and children.

But what is interesting us, is the pouch. Although the companies decline to give material specifications, we know that these stand-up pouches are made from a laminated kraft paper. The laminate probably is a polyethylene.

Regarding the plastic inner-liner, tests in Brazil resulted in polyethylene as the best possible protection to the product, due to its sealing performance, and its mechanical integrity. The versatility of polyethylene combined with other materials embeddable by co-extrusion or lamination enables a stand-up paper pouch to be used for dry grains, cereals, coffee beans, pet feed, cleaning powder and many others. The possibilities of incorporating other materials are virtually endless, further opening a market for the most diverse applications.

There is one more. In Australia I came across a paper stand-up pouch for fish.

Australian company Australis claims that preparing its Barramundi healthy seafood has never been faster or easier. The fish steam cook in the microwave in less than 10 minutes (40-45 minutes in a conventional oven), while its patented unbleached paper pouch retains the steam to ensure uniform cooking throughout.

So, that was the paper pouch, or was it? When I was searching the internet, I also discovered that there are, in limited editions, stand-up pouches made from rice paper. Well, before I show the examples, let’s talk about rice paper.

Rice paper usually refers to paper made from parts of the rice plant, like rice straw or rice flour. The term is also used for paper made from or containing other plants, such as hemp, bamboo or mulberry.
In Europe, around the 1900s, a paper-like substance was originally known as rice paper, due to the mistaken notion that it was made from rice. In fact, it consisted of the pith of a small tree, Tetrapanax papyrifer, the rice paper plant.
The plant grows in the swampy forests of Taiwan. In order to produce the paper, the boughs are boiled and freed from bark. The cylindrical core of pith is rolled on a hard flat surface against a knife, by which it is cut into thin sheets of a fine ivory-like texture.
It is used for origami, calligraphy, paper screens and clothing. It is stronger than commercially made wood-pulp paper. Less commonly the paper is made from rice straw.

Note: Don’t confuse it with another kind of rice paper, which is edible paper made from starch and especially used for Vietnamese cuisine. Edible rice paper is used for making fresh summer rolls or fried spring rolls, where the rice paper is called bánh tráng or bánh đa nem. Ingredients of the food rice paper include white rice flour, tapioca flour, salt, and water.

Time to have a look at some rice paper stand-up pouches.

Ma Snax Superior Dog Treats, are said to be sustainably handmade organic products for dogs. The new packaging is a rice paper pouch with a little window. They have an elegant and supple hand-feel to them and the colourful labels stand out. The stand-up pouch is claimed to be an eco-friendly packaging option. It is recyclable, but not compostable, as they are lined with polyethylene for stability and to make them food grade.

And even in the non-food sector you find a rice-paper stand-up pouch. The company offers a Paint Kit with Brushes, including 6 colour packets, 6 compostable jars with lids, and 2 bamboo brushes (cruelty-free), in a rice paper pouch. I can’t confirm the claim of the compostability of the jars and the stand-up pouch made from rice-paper, as I don’t have specific information of this company.

Earth Day and the Future of Packaging

22 April, 2012 · by Anton Steeman · http://bestinpackaging.com/2012/04/22/earth-day-and-the-future-of-packaging/

Tomorrow, Sunday, the 22nd of April, will be Earth Day and the internet will be overloaded with the most beautiful photos of what is left of this planet. This is all nice and dandy from an historical point of view, with the accent on historical. Yes, let’s show our children how beautiful the earth once was. Safe the beautiful photographs for the next generations. They might be the only thing they will have.

However I am more interested in what we are doing to conserve the beauty of this earth, or what is still left of it. And then of course in relation to packaging. That brought me to write an essay about the future of packaging.

I am not a futurist, I have no crystal ball. I am solely interested in the future of packaging as a result of developments in packaging technology. Setting the parameters of future packaging will be my theme of this Earth Day.

The consumer is King
It looks like as if packaging is a doomed species. Doomed as a growing hard-core group of consumers only typify it as wasteful and not only think, but promote vigorously that less consumption will save the world and consequently prefer to abandon all packaging.
Looking at the past, we must agree that they have a point.

The modern consumer in general is romanticizing nature and demonizing the industry. And let’s be honest the industry indeed is the culprit.
When you look at all the press releases over the last few years relating the millions of pounds in saving of packaging material, you really wonder what the packaging industries as well as the packaged goods companies have done in the years before. And although there is a lot done, the industry hasn’t come much farther than trimming down, down weighting and using thinner material. There is an absolute end to all that. We have to be a little bit more intelligent.

In 1992 at the “Earth Summit” in Rio de Janeiro the word “eco-efficiency” was coined. This, so it was hoped, would transform industry from a system that takes, makes, and wastes into one that integrates economic, environmental and ethical concerns. Essentially, eco-efficiency means doing more with less. Although crucial, eco-efficiency only slows down the rate of environmental damage and resource depletion.

And that brings us to biodegradability. The big ‘green-washing’ slogan, found in any press release and in these days on almost any label.
Let’s face the bitter truth. More than 80% of packaging ends up at landfills, where nothing biodegrades. A situation which will not change in the near future.

Composting companies don’t touch so called biodegradable material, as it biodegrades too slowly and with residues unknown. The landscape is littered with packaging and even worse most consumers can’t determine whether a packaging is biodegradable or not.

And as final point. It might biodegrade at the long run, but it doesn’t enrich the soil. Conclusion: It is a waste. A cradle-to-grave solution.
Eco-efficiency, and that includes biodegradability, lets industry finish off everything: quietly, persistently, and completely.
Case in point: Composting-an-end-of-life alternative offered by PLA and others, is an inefficient (and I even want to define it as an immoral) way and only serves the slogans of marketing.

A new philosophy emerged: Cradle-to-Cradle
The funny thing is that, in contrast to eco-efficiency, the cradle-to-cradle philosophy encourages consumers to buy more products. However the condition is, that they do so from innovative companies which have policies in place to recycle old products, turning waste into new products.
Cradle-to-Cradle allows us to feel good again about being consumers, but to also take responsibility about whom we buy new goods from.

The term cradle-to-cradle is often used for situations in which the recycled material is used for (secondary or low-quality) products. I strongly object to that definition and want it to be narrowed down to reusing the packaging material for equally qualified new packaging material. I decline the option of cradle-to-substitute. So when the industry thinks it can recycle from packaging material to children’s toys, drainage pipes or whatever product, it is on the wrong track and the consumer will recognise the company as one which is still using virgin resources exclusively.

However, you could argue, that the current system for recycling is ineffective. And indeed it is a fragmented infrastructure based on municipal boundaries, and each area does collection differently and selective waste collection often loses in the battle for funding. But that is no reason for the industry, to run away from the problem, as Extended Producer Responsibility is lurking around the corner.

Extended Producer Responsibility
Begun 20 years ago as a solution to landfill problems in Europe, more than 30 countries now have some type of EPR packaging law. EPR programs shift the costs and responsibilities to the marketplace. Extended producer responsibility may be as many as 5 to 10 years from becoming a reality in the United States and everywhere else, it will inevitably arrive. So much better to join the pack early on.

EPR makes sure that everyone involved in the life cycle of the product shares in the responsibility for the product’s life cycle impact. What’s more, based on the experience, the overall costs, per ton, in EPR systems for packaging in Europe tend to decline over time.

To conclude: Besides consumer convenience, “waste-control” is the most important parameter for the future of packaging. Although of imminent importance, basically it has nothing to do with developments in new materials, but all with the future of Mother Earth.

So don’t wait for some high-tech solution to start controlling your waste.

I wish everybody a fruitful Earth Day. As ………..

Developments in Fresh Produce Packaging

18 April, 2012 · by Anton Steeman · http://www.bestinpackaging.com 

In three articles I like to highlight the recent developments in packaging of fresh produce. Fresh produce can be seen as one of the most important commodities of the food market. And only growing in importance, as more and more consumers opt for fresh and minimally processed food.

As an example we take the Scots. Scots are purchasing more fresh fruits and vegetables than other Britons. A study shows that Scots are more likely to cook fresh foods at home, buy fresh foods and choose food because of its healthiness than those south of the border.
According to the research Scots appear to be happy to spend more of their cash on organic food, being 9% more likely to do so than those in Britain as a whole. Fruit is particularly popular with Scottish kids, with 23% of fruit being eaten because it is “a favourite,” up from 15% in 2010. Children also consumed 11 million more servings of fruit last year than they did in 2010.

But the popularity of fresh produce also has its seamy side. It has been estimated that up to 25% of food is thrown away within the supply chain from grower to retailer to in-home. Vegetables and then fruit are the main contenders. In Germany, for example, where fresh produce is very popular, the consumers throw out nearly 82 kilos of food every year, including fruits and vegetables that they deem as unattractive in appearance.
This translates in almost 11 million tonnes of wasted food nationally each year. 60% of this, according to a study, comes from private households, 17% from restaurants, schools, cafes and the like and another 17% from industry. The remainder can be accounted for by retail wastage.

Everybody who claims that packaging is a waste of resources, has to take a look at the waste figures of fresh produce and multiply that, in case packaging should be eliminated. Many packaging companies, universities and research institute are concentrating their efforts on packaging material that will improve and extend the shelf-life and freshness of fresh produce. It is the only way to reduce the exorbitant quantity of fruits and vegetables thrown away.

But it isn’t only waste. While fresh fruit and vegetable consumption is linked to a plethora of health benefits, it can also be a source of foodborne illness. Globally, there has been an increase in the number of outbreaks of foodborne illness associated with fresh foodstuffs, and in particular ready-to-eat fruit and vegetables.

The fresh-cut industry is heavily dependent on chlorine as one of the most effective sanitizers to assure the safety of their produce.
However, in light of concerns about the environmental and health risks associated with the formation of carcinogenic disinfection by-products, there is increasing pressure on the industry to eliminate chlorine from the disinfection process. The use of chlorine for the disinfection of fresh produce is currently banned in some countries, such as Germany and Switzerland. In any case recontamination of the washed produce by pathogens poses a risk even after washing with chlorine, as they grow faster on cleaned produce.

Let me start with mentioning a new research project to extend shelf-life of fruit and vegetables.

The Safe-Bag Project
Building upon existing research into the use of non-thermal plasma technology for the in-pack decontamination of food products undertaken by Purdue University and project partner Dublin Institute of Technology, the Safe-Bag project will develop an alternative technology.

The €2.4 million EU-funded project aims to reduce microbes on fresh produce ensuring that technology does not affect the nutritional properties, texture or taste of the packaged fruit and vegetables.

It’s obvious that treating fresh produce is more difficult in comparison to foods such as milk where you can use heat. The Safe-Bag approach is to package fresh produce inside any type of plastic packaging and then pass that package through a dielectric plasma discharge. The system uses plasma within the bag for a very short period of time, and make active species within the bag, which inactivate the bacteria. Plasma (an energetic ionized gas) is widely used for industrial materials processing, and has shown promise as a decontamination tool for food contact surfaces.

The Safe-Bag project aims at developing a novel continuous in-pack decontamination system for fresh-cut produce. A prototype of the system will be built and tested at fresh fruit and vegetable processing facilities to validate its performance under industrial conditions. Extensive laboratory trials will be carried out to validate the anti-microbial efficacy of the system at industrial scale, to confirm there are no changes in the nutritional and quality parameters of treated produce and to determine its shelf-life.

As for the time being we are faced with fruits washed in chlorine and might have residues of pesticides, we have to find a way to securely wash the apple before we take a bite.

Dissolvable Fruitwash Labels
Scott Amron, a US engineer has “always been discontent with fruit labels and felt they could do more than just display product info and be difficult to peel off”. His statement: “We buy, wash and eat fruit. So, the wash step was the next thing the label should help with”, let to the development of the “soap-label”, officially coined by him as the “Fruitwash Label”
It’s based on the oval or circular peel-off labels fixed to the skins of fruits, however the labels essentially dissolve into an organic soap mixture which can then be used as a cleaning product, partly aiding in the removal of substances from the fruit or vegetable’s surface.

While the labels resist water, they dissolve when rubbed. Prior to the fruits or vegetables passing into consumers’ hands, though, they can function in the same way as a traditional label, displaying barcode information for retail stock-check purposes alongside the retail price.

The Fruitwash Labels haven’t yet reached the production stage, but Scott Amron is presently seeking an investor to purchase a stake in the Fruitwash Label Intellectual Property.

It’sFresh! Extends the shelf life of fruit
British retail group Marks & Spencer introduced an advanced new packaging design for its fruit products. The system is similar to that introduced last year by British supermarket chain Tesco. It’sFresh! was commercially adopted last year after extensive trialling on berries. Tesco will be the first retailer to confirm that the apparent benefits from a successful series of simulation tests will be transferred to the store and home environments.

It has been developed and brought to market in the UK by It’sFresh Ltd, the UK subsidiary of Food Freshness Technology, claiming that it is 100 times more effective than any similar existing materials.
The technology is a food grade non-woven strip (8 cm by 4.5cm) coated with a high tech mixture of minerals and clays that allows for removal of endogenous ethylene in fruit and vegetables to below physiologically active levels, thus reducing spoilage.

Laura Howes wrote in the Chemistry World an explanation: “The packaging apparently uses an 8cm x 4.5cm strip that contains ‘a patented mixture of clay and other minerals that absorb ethylene. Ethylene, or as we chemists tend to refer to it, ethene, is the smallest possible alkene and a well-known plant hormone involved in the ripening of fruit. It’s why the trick of putting a ripe banana in a bag with unripe fruit will ripen it. I haven’t found the patent from the firm involved, but we can make some educated guesses about how this works. Clay is an aluminosilicate with a large volume, so perhaps what we’re talking about something akin to a zeolite, with a large surface area for the gaseous ethene to adsorb onto. And as for the other minerals, perhaps the pores are impregnated with some antibacterial agent, like silver, to keep the fruit extra fresh. That’d be my guess”.

From now on, the inside of strawberry packaging sold in Marks & Spencer will boast the legend ‘It’s Fresh’. The writing will actually be on the rectangular strip that allows the fruit’s lives to be extended.

The incorporation of this freshening strip doesn’t affect the punnets’ recyclability one bit and it is Marks & Spencer’s intention to make it a standard feature across its entire packaged fruit range. The firm’s also commented that there’ll be no increase in price made to account for this new fresher fruit packaging’s introduction.

Tesco Fresh Produce Aisle

Trials carried out in M&S stores showed a minimum wastage saving of 4% – during the peak strawberry season this would equate to 40,000 packs, or about 800,000 strawberries.
In the meantime Tesco has estimated that the new It’sFresh! ethylene remover introduced after extensive testing last year could eventually save the fresh produce industry “millions of pounds” through its ability to enhance shelf life quality and reduce waste.

From Post-Consumer Flexible Packaging to a Durable Consumer Product

8 August, 2013 · by Anton Steeman · Best in packaging

No one wants a landfill in their backyard. Certainly, no one wants emissions from these landfills to contaminate air, soil and water with toxins and greenhouse gas emissions. But that’s exactly the place where almost all post-consumer flexible packaging ends up. The industry claims that the flexible packaging is ‘eco-friendly’, because it takes less space in landfills, as a flexible pouch weighs around 9gms compared to a PET bottle 35gms and a 330ml glass bottle around 220gms.
As I have argued in my previous article, we talk about billions and billions of pouches ending up in a landfill or an incinerator, where in both cases valuable material is wasted. They might take up 75% less space in a landfill but still there they don’t degrade within a million years, due to its complicated and variant composition of plastic and adhesive layers. The only proper answer is: Recycling.

But with all the promotion in favour of the flexible packaging there is no proper recycling system available. Sonoco Recycling, one of the largest recyclers with 50 locations worldwide, currently operates six material recovery facilities (MRFs). Despite its continuous investments in updates Sonoco’s facilities are still unable to accept post-consumer multi-layer flexibles. It is one of the realities the flexible packaging industry faces, simply said, there is no facility in the world for the recycling of post-consumer multi-layer flexible packaging. This is obviously an handicap for the consumer goods companies as they only can claim their “change to more eco-friendly packaging”, based on its lightweight, less use of resources, and only can boast about flexibles taking less space in landfills. That’s all nice and dandy but they never can claim its recyclability, something the consumer in these days requires to see. Neither incineration nor entombing in a landfill adds to the sustainability or useful life of the multi-layer packaging.

The parameters of the recycling process of post-consumer multi-layer flexible packaging
When we started to design a recycling solution for post-consumer multi-layer flexible packaging we had to take into account several parameters.
First of all, the keyword for the recycling process is “post-consumer”. Although the intention is to take-in post-consumer packages as clean as possible by organizing selective collection (about that in part 03 of this series) we have to be realistic and face the fact that quite some post-consumer residue, i.e. product rests, has to be removed, before the material effectively can be recycled.

Tests showed us that the degree of contamination due to product residues is somewhere between 10 and 20% of the total weight, which sounds high, but isn’t in absolute terms, as the average weight of a flexible pouch is 10gr, which translates into 1 or 2gr of residues, i.e. processed food (tomato sauce, mayonnaise, soups, oils etc.), cosmetics and detergents (shampoo and others). We have to reckon with the possibility that any product residue might be involved in the process.

The second parameter is, that since many flexible packaging feature dosing mechanisms, zippers, drinking spouts or screw caps it is not to be expected that the consumer provides cleaned or rinsed pouches. Due to these caps and spouts a forcible washing process in a hydro-cyclone isn’t a solution as we also take into account that due to the sticky residues the pouches don’t open easily.

The third parameter is the absolute lack of consistency in the intake of post-consumer flexibles. We have tested the intake of flexibles in several cities and have to conclude that although there is no consistency in product residue, there is an almost Gaussian distribution (Gaussian bell curve) in terms of the products and brands used by the consumer. This is of importance as we intend to recycle the product residue of the flexibles into biogas to be used in the recycling process itself. (About this later)

Furthermore we had to set our goals in relation to its feasibility and the economic, technical and environmental aspects. The recycling centre as described here is based upon the following criteria:
1.    The set-up is a modular design for a small-scale recycling centre, intended to implement in any urban area of 2-4 million inhabitants/consumers. The reason we choose for a relatively small-scale local unit is that in our opinion the logistic lines (supply of post-consumer pouches) should be kept as short as possible, as we prefer the post-consumer pouches not to be pressed in bundles to reduce its volume for the long haul. Furthermore a local unit stimulates community involvement for selective collection and consequently diminishes the waste volumes on the local landfills.
2.    We are not recycling into pellets, and our end-goal is not blow-moulding, injection moulding or extruding with a recycled resin. That can’t be done as our intake (multi-layer pouches) have a wide variety of material compositions, impossible to sort out and bring back to resin of any high-quality.
3.    What we do however is creating a composite film with excellent chemical and mechanical properties from which a wide variety of high-value durable consumer products can be created.

The set-up of a recycling centre, according to the criteria stipulated above, can handle post-consumer flexible packaging, such as multi-layer plastic pouches, chocolate and candy wraps, flow-wraps for cookies, biscuits and similar, and chips bags. All these items can have a structure of several types of plastic, aluminium (foil) and metallized film in any combination.

Note: It is funny to say, that when we developed this recycling system, we realised that it would be very easy (and profitable) to incorporate a second mainstream of post-consumer packaging namely laminated paperboard packaging, such as beverage cartons (TetraPak, SIG and EloPak), beverage cans made from paperboard (Lamican, CartoCan) and laminated or waxed folding cartons used for frozen food, ready-meals, and similar products. To this recycling stream blister packs with a paperboard/plastic structure can be added.
However we restrict this description of the recycling process to the post-consumer flexible packaging.

Recycling of Flexible Packaging
Actually, the recycling line for flexible pouches is nothing special and is constructed using known techniques and existing technologies, taken from other industries and with some engineering modifications and additions made suitable for our purpose.

As said, the objects to be recycled are post-consumer flexible pouches. The keyword is post-consumer. In other words the pouches to be recycled have a certain degree of contamination by product residues, i.e. processed food (tomato sauce, mayonnaise, etc.), cosmetics and detergents (shampoo and others). We have to reckon with the possibility that any product residue might be involved in the process.

Since many flexible packaging feature dosing mechanisms, zippers, drinking spouts or screw caps a forcible washing process in a hydro-cyclone isn’t a solution as we also take into account that due to the sticky residues even the pouches without any fitments don’t open easily.

The only solution is, before the washing cycle, to cut the material into the narrow strips we need for our recycling process. In order to avoid excessive pollution of the shredder we have projected special high-pressure water nozzles in the shredder, and use a screw conveyor with a forced downwards water flow while the strips are transported. The auger brings the strips on a woven dewatering belt, where with hot air the material is dried, after which they fall into a storage tank.

The contaminated process water from the shredder with the solid residue particles is pumped to a sedimentation tank to partly be recycled and brought back into the washing line and partly be transported to the biogas digester.

The in narrow strips shredded and washed flexible packaging material (a mixture of various plastics, aluminium and metallized film) is the raw material for the second step of this recycling process, which is the manufacturing of plates, sheets or slabs as intermediates for the planned final consumer durables.
In order to achieve this result it is necessary that the strips are brought into a state between solid and liquid. The plastic strips are not allowed to melt, but they should be soft, not sticky, to be able to fuse with each other and the aluminium into one homogeneous body, using heat and pressure. For this purpose the storage tank is heated and equipped with a slowly rotating mixer arm, which ensures a consistent mixture. In addition, an additive is added.

The additive, about which I will not divulge more details, it is an organic waste product of a certain manufacturing process, which, after washing and shredding is mixed in a certain ratio with the strips. The additive gives a boost to the final product, which will become harder, more homogeneous, elastic and stronger.

From the storage tank this mixture is deposited on a conveyor belt through a vibrating dosing unit in a 5 to 50 cm thick uniform and continuous layer. The thickness of the layer depends on the application of the final product. The conveyor belt is an integral part of the hot-press.
The technology we borrowed from the rubber industry, where shredded tires are mixed with urethane glue, producing rubber pads for stalls and truck beds. Note, that we don’t use glue, only heat and pressure.

The press, we have projected is a so-called “belt feed press”. The material is deposited on the wire mesh belt as it moves into the press. A shaker and levelling screen evens out the mat and each time the belt is filled with loose material, the press closes and fuses the material. The finished mat slides onto a cooling table to be sheared into large panels as the next batch is pulled into the press, overlapping at the ends making a continuous thick composite film.
Tests showed that we need pressure up to 200 psi, which at a temperature of 350°F (175°C) delivers in one press-stroke of 6 minutes a 12’ (3.65 m) section of the composite film at a width of 6’ (1.80 m).

This recycling line now has produced two separate products:
1. Plastic/aluminium composite film in a thickness of 5 to 50 mm
2. Contaminated process water with solid product residues (food, cosmetics residues etc.)

It should be clear, that out of the formed composite film a large variety of products can be pressed. To this end, the continuous composite film is cut into large (p.E. 4′ or 1.20 m) sections, which are successively fed one at a time into a cold press. In this cold press the still hot material gets its final shape and dimensions. Here the necessary corrugation, recesses, channels and embedding are pressed in the material.
After the cold press a conveyor belt runs the prepared panel to the manual assembly and finishing line.

The range of products that can be manufactured run from the simple ones to the more complicated and more high-valued items. In several production runs in Brazil we have manufactured corrugated roof panels.
Compared to the existing (asbestos, aluminium, galvanised steel or concrete) roof panels, the panels made from recycled film material have far better characteristics, such as light weight, good isolation, mechanical and chemical resistance, are unbreakable and have a low noise level. Although basically a lower-value item, the corrugated roof panels are very popular in low-income countries where they are used in housing projects, while in industrialised countries the recycled corrugated roof panels will be very popular in the agriculture industry, particularly for poultry sheds and other animal stables and barns, due to their excellent heat isolation.

Talking about the agriculture sector there is another item of interest, which can be manufactured from the composite film. That is low-cost solar panels, which can easily be mounted on top of the above mentioned corrugated roof panels. This is an important item as farms raising pigs, poultry as well as cattle use a large quantity of energy for the ventilation, heating/cooling, and all ancillary equipment.

In this case, after the cold press in which the composite film is pressed into its right shape as solar panel, a conveyor belt runs the freshly pressed solar panel to the manual assembly line, where the thin-solar film is glued into the embedding and the cables and connectors are installed.

To complete the sustainability of this recycling centre we projected that the process water with the solid product residue is pumped to a sedimentation tank for further processing in the biogas plant and partially treated, and recycled as process water (closed loop).

Small-scale bio-gas digester
The process water with the solid product residue is pumped to the sedimentation tank, and from there to an Optiflot, in which the contaminated water is slowed down and the separable particles will float to the surface. The floating particles will be removed automatically and continuously by a scraper mechanism. A lamella plate pack is installed to increase the separation area of the unit and ensures that even the smallest flocs are removed from the waste water.

Optiflot, in which the contaminated water is slowed down and the separable particles will float to the surface

With a 30-days fermentation process, the collected solids are pumped in the bio-digester once in a month. The contaminated process water goes through a series of Recycle Storage Tanks and after polishing the process water is re-pressurised for discharge in the wash process of the recycling lines.

The solids undergo an anaerobic digestion widely used as a source of renewable energy. The process produces a biogas, consisting of methane and carbon dioxide. This biogas can be used in combined heat and power gas engines (CHP) or upgraded to natural gas quality bio-methane. The nutrient-rich digestate that is also produced can be used as a (biological) fertilizer.

Besides the products made from the composite film, this recycling process also supplies us via the biogas digester: liquid fertilizer, dry fertilizer and natural gas that is intended to be used for heating the drying process as well as in the belt feed press.

Green Map Arrived in Hong Kong – Please look for Innovasians Limited on Green Map

 

Open Green Map, a New Way to Experience the World

Promoting local green living, nature and culture since 1995, Green Map® System has empowered a diverse locally-led mapmaking movement that has spread to more than 850 cities, towns and villages in 65 countries. Committed to engaging communities and individuals in charting a sustainable future, the New York City-based non-profit organization has launched the participatory Open Green Map, its most powerful online tool to date.

 

OpenGreenMap.org, is a social mapping platform making a vast array of carefully researched sustainability sites, routes and resources charted by local Green Mapmakers instantly accessible. Moreover, it invites public sharing of insights, images and impact assessments for each green living site, social innovation, natural, cultural or civic resource on the map. Open Green Map merges familiar Google Map technology with globally recognized Green Map Icons and local knowledge to energize the booming ‘go local’, ecotourism, green jobs and social justice movements worldwide. Each Open Green Map encourages exploration and action, builds skills and networks, expedites the transfer of model initiatives and gives all users a more powerful voice in promoting sustainable futures.

 

The Green Map Hong Kong project is part of this global collective and is being undertaken by locally registered Society for Sustainability which aims to undertake a series of activities with participation from schools throughout Hong Kong over a 3-4 month period in partnership with SCMP Young Post publication towards the end of 2013.

 

“We will broadly populate the Green Map Hong Kong with a rich array of resources for public use with a print edition in English and Chinese as well as the interactive Open Green Map on the web” says David Tarrant, Executive Director at Society for Sustainability and project leader for Green Map Hong Kong. But you don’t have to wait, visit Green Map Hong Kong athttp://www.opengreenmap.org/greenmap/green-map-hong-kong.

 

Open Green Maps can already be explored in multiple websites and blogs, and enhanced with public commentary. Green Map System has an app for the iPhone which can be downloaded from iTunes and we plan an android app in the not too distant future. This app allows the rich array of Open Green Mapped sites to be accessible on the go.

 

Think Global, Map Local! . . . Think Global, Map Social!

 

You can contact us through email to david@sfshk.org, or visit us on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Green-Map-Hong-Kong/414396695299872

 

“We are proud to be a part of the award-winning Green Map movement. We invite you to enrich the world and envision the future with the Open Green Map”.

Four reasons why you should get to know the ISO/TS 14067 on product footprinting

http://www.2degreesnetwork.com/groups/supply-chain/resources/four-reasons-why-you-should-get-know-isots-14067-product-footprinting/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=Community&utm_campaign=2942801_13.08.06+Editors+Highlights&dm_i=1ILQ,1R2OH,8D96RN,68OZ1,1

Do you know what the story is behind ISO/TS 14067 and the carbon footprinting of products? Here are four reasons why you should get to know and embrace this standard.

Don’t let your eyes glaze over when reviewing a new standard. ISO/TS 14067 is not to be missed.

My eyes tend to glaze over when people start talking to me about standards. (I imagine yours are doing the same now). There seem to be so many of them and I can’t keep track of which one I should be using for which kind of project and whether I ‘shall’ or ‘should’ do anything in particular without contravening some other aspect of the standard.

You might understand my surprise when I found my eyes remaining open and unglazed whilst learning about the recently released ISO/TS 14067.

The full name is: ISO/TS 14067 – Greenhouse gases – Carbon footprint of products – Requirements and guidelines for quantification and communication.

If you are carbon footprinting your products and communicating the results, you need to know about this technical specification (TS). There are four reasons why.

1. Something old

The 14067 TS is built on the very solid foundation of 14040 and 14044. Solid, because these standards have now been in use since 1997 (strictly speaking since 2006 but the 2006 standards replaced the 1997 LCA standards) and experience has shown that the standards are well accepted academically and professionally, very well understood and widely used (check out this article for more).

Building on the existing terminology, concepts and ideas from 14044 means practitioners should be able to easily recognize much of what is contained within this new specification.

Not only is the TS based on an ‘old’ foundation it is also comparable to the GHG Protocol and PAS 2050 and is related to a multitude of industry specific guidelines such as “A common carbon footprint approach for dairy” from the International Dairy Federation.

If you already understand one of these other standards it shouldn’t be too much of a stretch to come to terms with 14067.

2. Something new

ISO/TS 14067 extends the scope of requirements for LCA by providing “principles, requirements and guidelines for the quantification and communication of the carbon footprint of products (CFPs).” Four types of communication are identified:

• CFP external communication report
• CFP performance tracking report
• CFP label
• CFP declaration

Of particular interest is that a performance tracking report “…allows for the comparison of CFP results of one specific product of the same organization over time with respect to its original or previous CFP” and a declaration is similar to Type III environmental declarations and intended for public availability (or not). As Dr. Barbara Nebel, Managing Director of PE Australasia, points out “combining requirements for quantification and communication in one specification is a great step forward.”

If you already understand one of these other standards it shouldn’t be too much of a stretch to come to terms with 14067.

In PE’s recent webinar on ISO/TS 14067, Paul Melville, Senior Policy Analyst at the Ministry for Primary Industries in New Zealand, pointed out that with all the media around carbon footprinting “…it’s very difficult, often impossible to know where the data have come from and what methodology is behind them.” Having guidelines around communication will help alleviate this problem.

While there are similarities between this TS and PAS 2050, one key difference is that, unlike PAS 2050, 14067 was built with international consensus derived from delegates representing about 50 countries through 12 working group meetings.

Product category rules (PCRs) are used to ensure fairness and comparability when comparing the environmental performance of products

3. Something borrowed

Product category rules (PCRs) are used to ensure fairness and comparability when comparing the environmental performance of products and are the most commonly used mechanism for the 435 (or thereabouts) labeling programs around the world.

PCRs typically identify and document the goal and scope (and other rules such as the allocation methodology) of the life cycle assessment study that must be carried out in order to make claims in the form of environmental product declarations or labels. 14067 borrows the PCR concept from ISO 14025 insofar as it requires that any existing PCR can only be considered relevant if it complies with ISO 14025. Paul Melville points out that “the goal [of this specification] is to make sure comparisons are fair.” Borrowing the concept of PCRs adds robustness and ensures that this goal can be achieved.

4. Something blue

In the traditional saying, the collection of old, new, borrowed and blue things, worn by a bride on her wedding day, was thought to bring good luck. The good luck charm for carbon footprinting of products is, as with any LCA work, process data. Without it, carbon footprinting would be very difficult, if not impossible.

The specification defines that the “best quality data available” should be used. Where site-specific data cannot be practicably collected, verified process data should be used. The GaBi Databases provide such process data.

So, here are the four reasons why you should get to know ISO/TS 14067:

1. Something old = Built on the accepted ISO 14044 standard
2. Something new = Extends the scope of requirements for the communication of LCAs – which may be the next logical step for your current LCA work
3. Something borrowed = Utilises existing Product Category Rules concept that you may already be complying with
4. Something blue = Utilises process data that you may already have

If you are carbon footprinting your products take a more detailed look at ISO/TS 14067 and post your questions and comments below.

So are your eyes still open?