Packaging
Plastic packaging: less is more Sometimes environmental sustainability and business don’t always go hand in hand, especially when it comes to packaging of products. But multi-national companies hoping to woo sustainability-minded customers are beginning to make a concerted effort in building more sustainable businesses and reducing their environmental footprints.
DPS has achieved its plastics savings ahead of its targeted date
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SEPTEMBER 2014
Unilever and DPS using less plastic One of the world’s leading suppliers of food, home and personal care products Unilever has introduced a bottle that contains at a minimum 15% less plastic as a result of a newly developed packaging technology. The Dove Body Wash bottles are produced using the MuCell technology for extrusion blow moulding (EBM), which was created in close collaboration with two of Unilever’s global packaging suppliers, ALPLA and MuCell Extrusion. It represents a breakthrough in bottle technology: by using gas-injection to create gas bubbles in the middle layer of the bottle wall, it reduces the density of the bottle and the amount of plastic required. Unilever says it intends to widen the availability of this technology to be used more broadly across the industry. With up to 33 million Dove Body Wash Unilever’s Dove Body bottles sold across Europe in 2013, the new Wash bottle uses 15% technology stands to save up to 275 tonnes/ less plastic year of plastic; whereas a full roll-out across every Unilever product and packaging format could save up to 27,000 tonnes of plastic and contribute significantly to the target set out in the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan to halve its waste footprint by 2020. Unilever says it will waive specific exclusivity rights by January 2015 so that other manufacturers can start to use the technology across their brands and products. In its recent environmental report, Unilever says its total footprint from packaging waste to landfill has reduced (-11%) as a result of efficient packaging designs and the disposal of sauce brands with large waste footprints. All packaging with this technology will remain 100% recyclable. Meanwhile, in its 2014 Corporate Social Responsibility Report, US beverage maker Dr Pepper Snapple Group (DPS) says that it conserved around 28,000 tonnes of PET through lightweighting and packaging redesigns since 2007 (the company says it offers the lightest 2-l bottle in the industry) — the goal was 28,000 tonnes by 2015. The report also says since DPS achieved its original goal of an 80% packaging recycling rate in 2011, it has revised its goal to achieve a 90% recycling rate of its solid manufacturing waste by 2015.