Packaging Standards

Sustainable Packaging Standards

European Standards on Packaging and the Environment

Australian National Packaging Covenant Environmental Code of Practice and Guidelines for Packaging

ISO 22715:2006 Cosmetics -- Packaging and labelling

ISO 15378:2006 Primary packaging materials for medicinal products -- Particular requirements for the application of ISO 9001:2000, with reference to Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP)

ISO 11607-1:2006 Packaging for terminally sterilized medical devices -- Part 1: Requirements for materials, sterile barrier systems and packaging systems

ISO 11607-2:2006 Packaging for terminally sterilized medical devices -- Part 2: Validation requirements for forming, sealing and assembly processes

ISO/IEC TR 24729-1:2008 Information technology -- Radio frequency identification for item management -- Implementation guidelines -- Part 1: RFID-enabled labels and packaging supporting ISO/IEC 18000-6C

ISO/IEC 29500-2:2008 Information technology -- Document description and processing languages -- Office Open XML File Formats -- Part 2: Open Packaging Conventions

ISO 8317:2003 Child-resistant packaging -- Requirements and testing procedures for reclosable packages

ISO 7195:2005 Nuclear energy -- Packaging of uranium hexafluoride (UF6) for transport
Edition: 2 Stage: 90.60 TC 85/SC 5

ISO/IEC Guide 41:2003 Packaging -- Recommendations for addressing consumer needs

ISO 13302:2003 Sensory analysis -- Methods for assessing modifications to the flavour of foodstuffs due to packaging

ISO 21067:2007 Packaging -- Vocabulary

ISO 11418-1:2005 Containers and accessories for pharmaceutical preparations -- Part 1: Drop-dispensing glass bottles

ISO 11418-2:2005 Containers and accessories for pharmaceutical preparations -- Part 2: Screw-neck glass bottles for syrups

ISO 11418-3:2005 Containers and accessories for pharmaceutical preparations -- Part 3: Screw-neck glass bottles (veral) for solid and liquid dosage forms

ISO 11418-4:2005 Containers and accessories for pharmaceutical preparations -- Part 4: Tablet glass bottles

ISO 17088:2008 Specifications for compostable plastics

PVC polyvinyl chloride

Because PVC is flexible, light, transparent and cost-effective, it has been widely used in packaging as

• rigid films (60%), in blister packs, clamshell packs for toys, hardware, electronics, personal care products, household goods; strawberry punnets; salad-to-go bowls
• flexible films (11%), in food wraps, tamper evidence sleeves for medications, shrink-wrapping for games, software, household goods
• closures (3%), in jar lids
• rigid bottles, for mouthwashes, automotive lubricants

In the recent decade use of PVC has been discouraged in several countries, such as in the USA and the European Union. Why? Because of its toxicity at every stage of its lifeycle.

1. To produce PVC, the highly toxic vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) is polymerized. VCM is a known human carcinogen (cancer-causing agent), and due to their exposure through the years many workers in PVC plants developed liver tumours and died of angiosarcoma of the liver.

2. During the PVC polymerization process, dioxin by products are created. Dioxin compounds (particularly polychlorinated dibenzodioxins PCDDs) have been shown to bioaccumulate in humans and wildlife; they are known to cause birth defects (teratogens) and change DNAs (mutagens) and are suspected to cause cancer in humans.

3. During distribution and consumption, the plasticizers such as phthalates used to make PVC softer can easily leach out of PVC packaging into the food. Phthalates mimic human hormones and also adversely affect fish and invertebrates. Phthalates in PVC cling wrap were found to migrate to cheeses, fatty fish and meats. Soft PVC toys for children have been banned in many places due to the leaching of phthalates (particularly diethylhexyl phthalate DEHP and diisononyl phthalate DINP) as kids chewed on the toys. Intravenous bags used in neonatal intensive care units have also been shown to leach DEHP; PVC-free IV bags are now available.

4. When subjected to incineration or wastewaster treatment systems, PVC in domestic garbage also releases dioxin. Burning of household waste in barrels and open pits is the biggest source of dioxin emissions; this is followed by the incineration of medical and municipal waste (medical tubing and blood bags are made from PVC). Landfill fires can also be a significant source. Dioxins persist in the environment and can travel long distances, so they are a global threat.

The Japanese car companies Toyota, Nissan, and Honda have eliminated PVC in their car interiors starting in 2007. Microsoft, Wal-Mart, and Kaiser Permanente announced efforts to eliminate PVC from products and packaging in 2005. Target is reducing its sale of items with PVC. The US State of California is currently considering a bill that would ban the use of PVC in consumer packaging by 2015.

There have been widespread attempts to find alternatives to PVC in packaging:

a. For blister packs, cyclic olefin copolymers (COC) or polymers (COP) have been successfully used, typically in multilayered combinations with polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE), or glycol-modified polyethylene terephthalate (PETg).

b. For cling wrap, PVC is still the most common for food catering businesses, but LDPE has gained market for household cling wraps.

More information at
Vinyl Council Australia
European Council of Vinyl Manufacturers
The Vinyl Institute

Biodegradation?

A 17-year investigation on the archaeology of landfills was published by Dr William L Rathje in the National Geographic magazine on May 1991. Some of the astounding findings was that foodstuffs buried 18 years before did NOT decompose significantly in landfill. The lettuce, corn, hot dog and bread roll looked as if they were just mummified, and didn't break down into simpler or smaller substances. Newspapers which were 11 years old looked as good and completely readable as though they were just kept in the attic.

So if manufacturers claim that you can be guiltless in consuming their products because they are packaged in biodegradable plastic bottles or wrappers, which you then throw away into the garbage bin and ultimately ends up in landfill, you can now imagine what that bioplastic junk would look like in the next couple of decades or so.

Remember that bioplastics are expected to degrade only in the conditions set up in industrial composters, not in home composters nor in landfill sites. So unless there is a system for collecting back these used bioplastic packaging you can consider them as destined for the landfill.

This picture might be changing in the future, as some councils are now starting to use UR-3R waste management facilities (that stands for Urban Resource- Reduction, Recovery, Recycling) such as the one run by Global Renewables at Eastern Creek. UNSW subscribes to the UR-3R service. Under this system, recyclable paper, metal and plastic are mechanically separated; compostable materials are refined into organic growth media (it is not clear whether this system can handle bioplastics); and the rest used as a renewable energy source.

PBS Polybutylene Succinate

PBS polybutylene succinate claims to be a fully biodegradable macromolecular polymer that decomposes naturally into CO2 and H2O under specific conditions (contact with soil, light, heat, natural water).

It is used in making bioplastic films, bags, boxes, cosmetic bottles, electronic parts packing, disposable diningware, disposable medical articles.

Bionolle was one of the first PBS bioplastics.

TPS thermoplastic starch

TPS thermoplastic starch is the most important and widely used bioplastic. It is used in making capsule casings for pharmaceutical drugs. A common TPS is PSM plastarch material from corn; it biodegrades well in compost, wet soil, and water.

TPS is generally made into biodegradable bioplastic films, which are converted into shopping bags, bread bags, bait bags, over wrap, 'flushable' sanitary product backing material, and mulch film. They are also used for foamed starch loose fill packaging and injected moulded take-away containers (usually with the addition of glycerol as plasticizer and polyvinyl alcohol).

TPS blended with either PCL polycaprolactone or PVA polyvinyl alcohol yields such commercial bioplastics Mater-Bi (from Novamont, Italy) and Bioflex (from BioTech, Germany). Mater-Bi was used for biodegradable catering items and garbage bags during the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

More information at European Plastic Films and on Wikipedia.

Bioplastics

Bioplastics or organic plastics include all plastics derived from renewable plant sources, such as vegetable oil or corn starch, as opposed to petroplastics from fossil fuel sources. They are potentially biodegradable and compostable, and are now popularly used for disposable packaging (trays and containers for fruit, vegetables, eggs, meat; bottles for softdrinks and dairy products), disposable tableware (crockery, cutlery, drinkware, straws) as well as shopping bags.

Europe accounts for 60% of the biodegradable materials market. In Japan bioplastics are used not for biodegradable applications, but as a thermoplastic from renewable sources, such as for car interiors and mobile phones.

The most common bioplastics are made from
TPS thermoplastic starch
PLA polylactic acid
PBS polybutylene succinate

The European Bioplastics Association shows examples of various bioplastic products here.

More information on Wikipedia.

Note that some bioplastics are NOT designed to be biodegradable. Their avoidance of extracting non-renewable resources is their major environmental benefit, rather than their potential to reduce the bulk of solid waste.

For instance, the 2007 Mazda Premacy Hydrogen RE Hybrid vehicle used PLA fabric for its seats and rigid PLA for its lower panel, shift panel, front console, glove box lid, and hydrogen tank cover.

Mitsubishi was also developing "Green Plastics" for some of its car interiors, such as bamboo-reinforced PBS for trim material and PLA with nylon fiber for its floor mats.

There is a continuing debate on the net environmental benefits of bioplastics. While the sources are renewable, the corn or sugarcane crops do need to be intensively farmed. Moreover despite claims of biodegradability, many bioplastics degrade too slowly, some up to 100 or 1000 years!

Samples of various bioplastics can be found in the FBE Materials Library.or trim material

PLA Polylactide

Polylactic acid or polylactide (PLA) is a biodegradable polyester from fermented corn starch, cane sugar, wheat starch. It can be processed like most thermoplastics into fiber and film. PLA is often made into biodegradable plastic cups, but cannot hold hot liquids unless it is modified into PDLA or PLLA, which increases its melting and glass transition temperatures significantly.

In packaging PLA is used as biodegradable loose-fill, compost bags, sandwich packaging, and disposable cutlery. It is also used for biodegradable sutures, nappies, feminine hygiene products and disposable garments. PLA is more expensive than petroleum-based plastics, but its price has been falling as production increases.

NatureWorks is the world's biggest commercial manufacturer of PLA bioplastic. Its range of PLA consumer products can be found here. Technical data sheets, fact sheets and processing guides are available here.

Some of the Australian brands which use PLA for its bottles are

• Natures Organics haircare line
• Cool Change natural spring water

PLA is compostable and biodegradable in industrial composting conditions, but it will not degrade or disintegrate on the supermarket shelves. In order to degrade, PLA must be exposed to temperatures greater than 60°C and relative humidity greater than 90% (these heat and moisture conditions are optimal for naturally occurring microorganisms to act on the PLA) for approximately 60 to 80 days; after which it composts into carbon dioxide, water, inorganic compounds and biomass. Natureworks advises that PLA will NOT decompose in backyard or home composters (due to lack of temperature and inconsistent conditions). PLA will also not degrade in landfills, due to low oxygen and temperature drops. Industrial composters with carefully regulated temperature, moisture and turning are required.

There are some laboratory tests though which show that PLA can decompose into carbon dioxide and water, such as the one by University of Nebraska. Another study by Iowa State University and University of Costa Rica showed results of visible degradation, but did not claim complete decomposition. Suming Li & Michael Vert's chapter on biodegradation of aliphatic polyesters in the book Degradable Polymers: Principles and Applications claimed that "in particular, it is now well known that PLA polymers degrade completely and rather rapidly in a compost where the temperature is usually between 50 and 60C."

There's another discussion on this on the Greener Package knowledge exchange on sustianable packaging.

The Green Dot

The Green Dot (Der Grüne Punkt) is the license symbol of a European network of industry-funded systems for recycling the packaging materials of consumer goods. It was originally introduced in 1991 by Duales System Deutschland (DSD) following the introduction of the 1991 German Ordinance on the Avoidance and Recovery of Packaging Waste (aka Packaging Ordinance, Verpackungsverordnung) which became the basis for the 1994 European Union Packaging Directive.

Under these waste recovery schemes manufacturers are made responsible for the recycling or disposal of any packaging in which their products are sold. Instead of collecting recyclable packaging themselves, they can join the Green Dot scheme and pay the license fees for using the Green Dot logo on their packaging labels.

As the Green Dot license fees are based on the weight and type of packaging materials used as well as the volumes of packaged products manufactured, the scheme encourages manufacturers to cut down on their use of packaging in order to minimize the cost of license fees which are passed on to consumers, making their merchandise costlier.

The Green Dot logo communicates to consumers that the manufacturer contributes to the cost of recovery and recycling of the used packaging. The logo also informs consumers to place the usedpackages in separate yellow bags or yellow wheelie bins for collection by DSD-operated waste collection vehicles and sorted and recycled in DSD facilities. If any packaging is found in the yellow bags without the Green Dot logo, the manufacturers are fined, as they have not effectively complied with the law on recovering their used packaging.

The successful German Green Dot scheme has now been replicated in 23 other European countries, as part of the European Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive 94/62/EC. This binds all manufacturers worldwide that sell products in the 27 member states of the European Community to recover their own packaging. The Green Dot is now used by more than 130,000 companies encompassing 460 billion packages.

See here a series of recycling videos produced by the DSD.

Twist Loofah

The paperboard box for Twist Loofah Sponge has preprinte cutting and folding diagrams at the back, to transform the used packaging into bird feeders which can be hung directly outside the kitchen window.

Tresdon Versatile Bottle Package

This Tresdon carry home wine packaging system converts into a wine rack, which can be expanded the more "boxes" you buy. The versatile design by Icon Design Group won a bronze IDEA International Design Excellence Award in 2005.

Y Water Bottles

Yves Béhar designed the bottles for Y Water, which can be repurposed into toy building blocks after use. The bottle won many international design awards in 2008. He talked about his work on this project at TED.com: designing objects that tell stories.

Intolerable Beauty of Packaging Waste

Chris Jordan is best known for his unsettling, large scale portraits on mass consumerism in the USA, which typically show the consequences which will arise from human habits. His works on Intolerable Beauty and Running the Numbers are graphical depictions of statistics from American consumer society.

He pictured shocking stats at TED.com.




National Geographic's Human Footprint channel calculated that in one lifetime, the average UK consumer uses up 49,717 cans of soda.

Heineken WoBo

Alfred Heineken was visiting his beer factories around the world, when he found many beer bottles littering the beaches of the Caribbean island of Curaçao. He discovered that the island's lower-class lacked affordable building materials and had inadequate housing, so he asked Dutch architect N John Habraken to design what he called "a brick that holds beer". Thus was born the stackable Heineken WoBo (World Bottle), which has been used to build bottle walls for houses. This is a fantastic example of upcycling, a design strategy fostered by William McDonough and Michael Braungart in their book Cradle to Cradle.

Body Shop Packaging

In the past The Body Shop offered customers the option of refilling used Body Shop containers, with a price reduction as an enticement. However less than 1% of customers used this option and this strategy was stopped. They still promote repurposing of their packaging.

Packaging Recycling Videos

Here are some videoclips from "Giving Packaging a New Life", produced in 2001 by Duales System Deutschland, http://www.gruener-punkt.de/, otherwise known as the Green Dot.




More videoclips from the same production:

Recycling paper
Recycling tinplate
Recycling aluminium
Recycling glass
Recycling plastics
Recycling tetrapaks

Container Deposit Legislation

Only the state of South Australia practices Container Deposit Legislation, refunding to the value of 10c per can or bottle. This practice started in 1977 to reduce littering as legislated by the Beverage Container Act of SA.

A nationwide container deposit scheme has been proposed in the Senate of the Federal Parliament. All attempts in other states have been unsuccessful so far (Victoria tried it twice but rescinded). (Note: plain milk and wine in glass containers are outside the scope of the South Australian CDL, and fruit juices and flavoured milks in 1L or bigger containers).

Packaging Covenant

Australia's National Packaging Covenant is a voluntary initiative to reduce the environmental effects of used packaging on the environment. Industry, government and community groups sign and commit to improved environmental packaging outcomes. Signing is voluntary, yet brand owners who do not sign may face state government regulations to ensue that signatories are not disadvantaged. The covenant has over 640 signatories.

The NPC has come up with an Environmental Code of Practice for Packaging, which includes a questionnaire for design. The code is also available on Schedule 5 of the NPC.

Sustainable Packaging Coalition

Th US-based Sustainable Packaging Coalition is a 200-strong association of packaging manufacturers, which collectively envision a true cradle-t0-cradle system for all packaging. The SPC came up with an 8-point criteria in its definition of sustainable packaging:

1. Is beneficial, safe & healthy for individuals and communities throughout its life cycle.
2. Meets market criteria for performance and cost.
3. Is sourced, manufactured, transported, and recycled using renewable energy.
4. Maximizes the use of renewable or recycled source materials.
5. Is manufactured using clean production technologies and best practices.
6. Is made from materials healthy in all probable end of life scenarios.
7. Is physically designed to optimize materials and energy.

8. Is effectively recovered and utilized in biological and/or industrial cradle to cradle cycles.

Sustainable Packaging Alliance

The Australian-based Sustainable Packaging Alliance aims to be an international focal point for knowledge, tools and expertise that catalyse and facilitate continuous improvement in the environmental performance and sustainability of packaging systems. Through these capabilities, SPA aims to contribute to the positioning of Australia as an international leader in commercial application and adoption of sustainable packaging systems.

The SPA provided a definition of sustainable packaging, naming four principles:

1. Effective: provide social and economic benefits.
2. Efficient: provide benefits by using materials, energy and water as efficiently as possible.
3. Cyclic: be recoverable through industrial or natural systems.
4. Clean: non-polluting and non-toxic.

In one of its papers, Towards Sustainable Packaging, the SPA illustrated several strategies for addressing environmental considerations in packaging.

Books on Sustainable Packaging

Boylston, Scott. 2009. Designing sustainable packaging. UNSW 688.8

Jedlicka, Wendy. 2008. Packaging sustainability: tools, systems, strategies for innovative package design. 688.8

Denison, Edward. 2001. Packaging prototypes 3: thinking green. UNSW 658.564/11

Roat, Richard. 1995. Eco design: environmentally sound packaging and graphic design. COFA 741.6/78

Klimchuk, Marianne. 2006. Packaging design: successful product branding from concept to shelf. SLNSW 658.564

Lewis, Helen. 2006. Packaging and product stewardship: a summary of international regulations and policies. UTS 363.7282