Pre-packaged foods and drinks generate a HUGE amount of unnecessary waste. Just as I think that oil and coal companies should be the driving forces behind developing methods to generate alternative energy, carton and container companies should be blazing a trail into sustainable packaging.
And there is at least one such company that is doing just that. GreenBiz says,
A maker of carton packaging for drinks and liquid foods has developed a new carton format that reduces the carbon footprint of packages by almost a third.
SIG Combibloc's new EcoPlus format for 1 liter aseptic cartons results in 28 percent fewer carbon dioxide emissions from between sourcing raw materials to the packages being shipped out of SIG Combibloc's processing plants, according to a life cycle analysis by the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IFEU) in Germany.
The packaging uses a new cardboard composite structure made of more than 80 percent wood fiber from Forest Stewardship Council certified sources.
It also includes a new, thinner polyamide layer, which protects the flavor and odor of what's inside the packaging, and thin layers of polyethylene on the inside and outside of the carton to protect against moisture.
An added bonus of SIG's new EcoPlusPack (and other similar products) is that the cartons are lighter, resulting in even less CO2 emissions required during transit.
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