PACKAGING: BALANCING MATERIALS,
DESIGN, AND APPEARANCE
Author
Wylie Royce
Royce Associates
ABSTRACT
“Plastic” has become the most widely used medium for packaging virtually every type of product today. It has become particularly pervasive in the cosmetic, personal care, food, and disposables industries. Unfortunately, plastic has become a victim of its own success because of its almost universal use and the consumer push to greener products and more sustainability. There is an increasingly heightened global awareness of the fragility of the planet’s resources, and a rapidly escalating commitment to conserve those resources, even in the face of their value in desirable products.
Packaging professionals, realizing this trend, have been actively searching for and finding ways to make their products more sustainable. To many, sustainable simply means using a renewable source material, but in fact there are several ways to improve the sustainability of packaging besides this approach.
Packaging manufacturers, and the customers they serve, are utilizing numerous strategies beyond simply looking for or developing materials that employ a renewable source material. Some of these include light-weighting, changing package design, reducing overall packaging, and investigating alternative materials—all in an effort to make the package more sustainable. However, at the same time, designers and marketers must preserve brand identity, which is often associated with the plastic package their products appear in on the consumer shelves.
One certainty that has emerged from this quest is that the field of cosmetics and personal care must continue to expand its research in order to find renewable materials, but at the same time, must meet appearance expectations and the ability to be processed into the unique shapes and designs required in order to serve these industries. While this search for new materials is still in its infancy, the industry must deal with how to modify currently used “plastics” so companies can move along the sustainability-green path that has emerged and from which there is no turning back.
Packaging professionals will find in this chapter a concise overview of:
- 1. What renewable plastics are commercially available and their functional advantages and disadvantages
- 2. Developments in design to reduce waste and packaging and the resultant advantages and pitfalls
- 3. The visual, cost, regulatory, and functional limitations when radically changing a package design or material
- 4. The sustainability cycle—all the factors that must be considered when determining the sustainability of your package
- 5. A review of the latest FTC Green Guidelines referring to what needs to be proven when the manufacturer makes sustainability claims
14.1.1 Plastic: Material of choice for a generation
f. Bio-resin design limitations
14.1.4 sustainability: what makes a package sustainable
(and it’s not just the package anymore)
a. Measuring sustainable claims
14.1.1 PLASTIC: MATERIAL OF CHOICE FOR A GENERATION
Today it seems hard to believe that just a generation ago plastic packaging was a novelty and barely existed. Today it is the most widely used material for packaging everything from cosmetics to food to water and pharmaceuticals. There are some very compelling reasons for plastic’s popularity. It can be molded or formed into virtually any shape; it can be decorated to look like almost anything but plastic; it can be colored or designed in almost every way possible to promote brand identity. Plastic is durable, sustainable, and relatively inexpensive.
But plastic has become a victim of its success. Today it is the subject of web attacks and non-government organizations (NGOs). It has been attacked for its lack of sustainable content and vilified in any number of ways.
One of the reasons that plastic packaging is such an easy target is that consumers have no emotional ties to packaging like they do for the product in the package. Plus, consumers view plastic as an oil-based product that is wasteful at the end of its life cycle.
Yet, in spite of these challenges, plastic packaging is projected to grow at a rate that outpaces inflation and general GDP for the next several years.
Since the question of sustainability is so diverse and expanding every day, it is difficult to even begin to offer any definitive recommendations on what makes a specific material or design the most sustainable package. Rather, we offer a view of material options currently being used effectively, their relative pluses and minuses, and a view of where different plastic packaging materials fit within the overall sustainable product value chain.
First, there are a few misconceptions that need to be addressed. As we have said, it is generally thought that plastic is a derivative of oil when in fact, most plastics manufactured in the U.S. are a by-product of natural gas that otherwise would be burned off at the wellhead. Therefore, most of the widely used conventional resins such as polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, and polyethylene teraphthalate (PET) are not necessarily depleting the earth’s oil resource. Also, they can be easily recycled and don’t necessarily end up in landfills.
A few years ago, the Society of Plastics Industry commissioned a study to determine public opinion on plastics, and the results were interesting. Most of the “millennial” generation, those consumers between the ages of 18 and 28, have very little opinion as to the good or bad of plastic, just a somewhat negative view of the disposal, or end-of-life aspect that fills up landfills or litters highways.
This study would suggest that some of the public outcry the industry has been facing has been a matter of a few “loud voices” versus universal public opinion. Nonetheless, the industry has known for several years that it needs to address the sustainability issue, and for a number of years has been developing new resins; designing packaging with a smaller carbon footprints; funding recycling programs; starting recycling companies; and enhancing public awareness of the benefits that plastic packaging offers, such as strength, durability, product protection, cost, design, etc. . . .
Perception has become reality for the plastics packaging industry, and sustainability is a very real concern for future generations; so the resin manufacturers, packaging designers, and end-product manufacturers are working diligently to make their products more sustainable—in the use of resources, reuse, and end-of-life scenarios.
Consumers generally view sustainable packaging as packaging that is recyclable, biodegradable/compostable, or made from recycled materials or renewable resources.
One of the most visible developments in plastic raw materials has been the commercialization of polylactic acid (PLA), marketed as Ingeo® by Natureworks, and polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), marketed as Mirel by Metabolix/Telles.
Two more recent bio-based raw materials that hold much promise are a bio-based PET and bio-based high-density polyethylene (HDPE). Both of these resins are based on sugar rather than hydrocarbons. Both resins process just like their hydrocarbon-based equivalents, can be easily recycled, but will not degrade.
There are a number of other polymers and hybrid copolymers that have been developed for primarily automotive applications and are based on renewable resources, i.e., sugar or corn. They are not typically used in any packaging applications, so it doesn’t make sense to expand on them at this time. These resins include bio-based Nylon 6, cellulose acetate and copolymers of PLA, plus polycarbonate and PLA plus ABS. The hybrid resins partially replace a part of the raw material with a more renewable source, but are not compostable or biodegradable.
To begin, we first need to define the term Bio-Resin or Bio-Plastic. As of this writing, a bio-resin is defined as “a plastic resin that either is manufactured from a biorenewable source of raw material, and/or will completely degrade in either a composting or landfill environment.”
If you manufacture a packaging and want to claim on the package that it is compostable, it will have to meet at the very least ASTM 6400.1 It is recommended that you review the FTC Green Guidelines before making any claims of compostability or biodegradability, and that you have the testing data to back up your claim.
Two of the most commercially active bio-based resins have different advantages and limitations, so they will be discussed separately and then later compared to the most widely used conventional resins.
INGEO® PLA ADVANTAGES
- • In its natural state it is appealing.
- • Its main raw material is corn, so it is a sustainability poster child and claims to emit lower greenhouse gas emissions during production.
- • It meets ASTM 6400 standards.
- • It is approved for all current FDA applications including food contact.
- • It has also been approved for all typical applications in the EU.
- • It molds and extrudes quite well.
- • Natureworks, the oldest and largest manufacturer of PLA, markets their product under the tradename Ingeo. Natureworks is committed to providing a high level of technical and production support to companies committed to switching to Ingeo® PLA.
- • INGEO® (PLA) is gaining market acceptance, and improvements and additives are developing on a continuing basis.
INGEO® PLA LIMITATIONS
- • It has a low vicat softening point, so it can lose its shape when exposed to temperature conditions such as hot coffee, or in trucks parked in the summer sun in warm climates.
- • However, there are products being commercialized virtually every month to modify PLA in different ways. A company called Purac now has a modified PLA that is claimed to be stable to 365°F.
- • It is not biodegradable; however, it is compostable, so it must be collected and disposed of in a composting facility.
- • Finished product is limited to 1.5-mm wall thickness to compost well or to be certified compostable.
- • It is not recyclable with other resins; it is a contaminant.
- • Very few colors and additives are FDA approved for specific applications, so the color range for any FDA application is limited.
- • It cannot be used with dyes, so crystal tints are not available.
- • Certain metal stearates reduce molecular weight dramatically.
- • Solubility in certain solvents is a concern.
When a designer works on a package, a key design element is centered around exactly what that package will contain. Therefore it is extremely important to know that the resin used in manufacturing the package will not be attacked or degraded as a result of coming into contact with a chemical in the cosmetic, perfume, or other personal care product.
The chart below is provided by Natureworks and outlines the solubility of Ingeo® PLA.
SOLVENT | % D | % SOLUBLE |
1,2 DICHOLORETHANE | 10 | 99.8 |
1,2 DICHOLORETHANE | 2 | 99.9 |
DMF | 10 | 99.8 |
DMF | 2 | 67.5 |
HEPTANE | 10 | 8.6 |
HEPTANE | 2 | 27.5 |
ISOPROPYL ALCOHOL | 10 | 0 |
ISOPROPYL ALCOHOL | 2 | 0 |
MIBK | 10 | 20.6 |
MIBK | 2 | 0 |
OCTANOL | 10 | 1.3 |
OCTANOL | 2 | 5.2 |
