The tech world is wrapped up in sustainable packaging — however is it right here to remain?

Sustainable packaging is in vogue. Seaweed, edible sprays, mushrooms and wool are getting used as packaging — and EU laws are pushing for extra sustainable packaging from corporations. 

However there are challenges to sustainable packaging going mainstream. There’s already pushback on laws — and bioplastics make up lower than 1% of the worldwide plastics market. 

We took a take a look at how the sector can overcome these challenges and what the brand new laws imply for startups.

Fibre to save lots of the planet?

Fibre-based packaging and sustainable coatings are two main sub sectors throughout the sustainable packaging business, each aiming to exchange plastics with supplies which are each biodegradable and recyclable.

“There’s lots of innovation going down within the sector and we’ll proceed to see extra of it — as an example, cardboard and fibre-based supplies are huge now. So we will wager on this as we all know that it really works properly and attempt to foster paperization,” says Guillaume Gras, funding director on the European Round Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF).

He says that because it stands, fibre-based packaging is the most effective wager: “Turning every part into paper — that is actually taking place. However on the similar time, we have to make paper higher, as a result of there are some limitations such because the power and resistance and it additionally lacks the barrier properties that plastic has.

“We’re searching for options that may enhance the barrier properties of sustainable packaging, together with fibre-based packaging. So that may come by way of components or coatings, that ought to after all, not cut back the recyclability,” he says. 

The value we pay

However, a serious problem going through the business is attaining worth parity, as plastics are historically low cost. Nonetheless, because the manufacturing of sustainable alternate options will increase and the business matures, costs ought to go down. 

“We’re planning to scale with our subsequent spherical of funding — and when manufacturing and gross sales enhance, the fundamental worth level will cut back,” says Hanna Kalliomäki, chief sustainability officer at Paptic, a fibre-based packaging materials producer.

Studies present that regardless of rising dwelling prices, 71% of customers are actively choosing merchandise based mostly on the sustainability of the product’s packaging.

“400m tonnes of plastics at the moment are being produced per yr and out of that 8m tonnes of plastic per yr goes to the oceans and double that quantity goes to the soil. Moreover, all plastic ending up in nature has the potential to separate all the way down to microplastic and find yourself in diet chains. So even at barely larger costs, I’d say that we should always nonetheless shift our shopper habits in direction of extra sustainable alternate options,” says Kalliomäki. 

Coverage haste makes waste

Policymakers are feeling the strain of the sustainable packaging race — 51 nations joined the Excessive Ambition Coalition to Finish Plastic Air pollution, which is pushing for a treaty that can restrict plastic manufacturing. France and Belgium have launched fines for non-recyclable packaging; the UK and different member states are anticipated to comply with go well with. 

However on the similar time there’s pushback on these laws akin to larger prices, hygiene considerations in reusing containers used and returned by customers, cross contamination between meals sorts which may probably comprise allergens, and logistics and better water and vitality use — particularly if containers and bottles must journey lengthy distances to be refilled by the unique firm.

Hungary is an instance. The nation was just lately reported, together with Romania, Croatia, Bulgaria and Slovakia, to have been “unambitious of their implementation” of the Single-Use Plastics Directive.

“Hungarian food and drinks corporations can not use plastic cups anymore — however additionally they don’t produce other alternate options so lots of them simply stocked up on plastic cups whereas they may nonetheless purchase them,” says Manuel Milliery, founding father of Papkot, a startup that gives a completely biodegradable and recyclable coating to present paper the identical packaging high quality of plastic.

“These sorts of laws are a giant push ahead for us within the sustainable packaging business, nevertheless it additionally can’t be rushed and imposed when there aren’t any options on the scale required to exchange it, or the market simply isn’t ready for it,” he provides.

Janne Sokajärvi, managing director at Jospak Oy, a Finnish startup producing sustainable trays, says there ought to be standardisation in packaging laws the place potential, throughout international locations. 

“It’s troublesome as a result of impartial international locations have their very own legal guidelines — however no one can function in an atmosphere that can have completely different calls for and necessities in each market. You may’t scale if every nation has distinctive necessities.”

Greenwashing

One other argument for standardisation is greenwashing. Identical to all different areas associated to sustainability and local weather, there may be the chance of greenwashing in sustainable packaging.

“The issue with packaging is that communication shouldn’t be at all times straightforward — manufacturers wish to use the package deal to speak concerning the product, not essentially concerning the packaging. So generally there’s packaging that claims to be inexperienced, even when it’s not truly inexperienced,” says Gras.

Kalliomäki says that standardised and dependable information is essential for customers and types to match and perceive the true sustainability worth of the completely different choices out there.

“There are lots of packaging options out there — and in shops — in the meanwhile which are actually advanced. So I am simply guessing, evaluating them and estimating which one is extra sustainable,” she provides.

How a lot packaging is an excessive amount of packaging?

The quite a few subgroups throughout the sector also can change into troublesome for manufacturers and customers to speak and perceive what is going to occur and ought to be finished with the packaging after use. 

For instance, if one thing is described as “biodegradable”, it means it’s designed to interrupt down into oxygen, water, biomass and salts. “Compostable” supplies are a subgroup of biodegradable supplies that break down once they undergo composting amenities.

Whereas bioplastics are constituted of natural supplies, not all biodegradable plastic is biobased, and never all biobased plastic is biodegradable, notes Kalliomäki — making it troublesome to recycle at scale. Recycling strategies and charges additionally differ throughout Europe which makes it troublesome to realize a harmonised waste resolution.

Kalliomäki says that that is additionally one of many upsides of fibre-based packaging. Not like plastic waste that may’t be recycled collectively, completely different sorts of fibre-based supplies will be recycled collectively. 

She provides that the packaging business wants harmonisation and rationalisation in what number of supplies are being produced as “simplifying using the packaging supplies can be actually good from a sustainability perspective” — each for finish customers and types transitioning to sustainable alternate options.

“At this time there are over 200 completely different environmental labels being utilized in shopper merchandise, and naturally, customers haven’t got the flexibility to know what these labels say or don’t say,” Kalliomäki says. 

However there’s hope. The EU’s proposed inexperienced claims legislation goals to make inexperienced claims dependable, comparable and verifiable throughout the EU with clear standards on how corporations ought to show their environmental claims and labels.

Kalliomäki provides that after regulation is rationalised, it’s the accountability of manufacturers “to speak this in a clear and simplified technique to customers — as a result of they’re actually the gatekeepers who’ve the facility to shift customers to sustainable consumption”.