Global materials science company Dow is collaborating with Procter & Gamble China (P&G China) to bring to market an air capsule e-commerce packaging format. The air capsule, enabled by P&G China’s innovation and Dow’s materials, aims to deliver an effective and efficient way to protect products while avoiding excessive packaging in e-commerce and facilitating recyclability.
Dow says the air capsule packaging is a significant milestone in advancing sustainability for the e-commerce industry, offering a reduction of 40 per cent in material weight compared to traditional corrugated parcel boxes, thus requiring only 25 per cent of original trucking and 75 per cent less warehouse space, and enabling recyclability through an all-PE mono material structure.
The company says the packaging design is also reliable and convenient for consumers, with features such as a tamper-free opening for content integrity, an easy-to-tear strip, and an auto-deflate feature for hassle-free disposal after opening.
“The rise of e-commerce has inevitably generated an increase in packaging waste. At Dow, our role is to develop materials that enable better performing, sustainable packaging that is designed for recyclability from the start. Through our collaboration with P&G China, we not only meet the needs of consumer brands and e-retailers, but also enable consumers to do their part with materials that close the loop on packaging waste,” said Bambang Candra, Asia Pacific commercial vice president, Dow Packaging & Specialty Plastics.
E-commerce packaging typically consists of carton boxes as the outer packaging, with air cushion bags or bubble wrap inside to protect and stabilize the products during delivery. However, the traditional air cushion bag film structure is multi-material – such as nylon (to provide high gas barrier for extended shelf life), a tie-layer resin, and polyethylene – making it difficult to recycle through conventional methods.
Dow says its Elite AT high performance PE resins provide comparable gas barrier performance, allowing nylon to be removed from the formulation to create an all-PE mono material structure that enables recyclability of the packaging.
“At P&G, we are focused on optimising our packaging design and committed to driving greater circularity in plastic packaging. Partnering with Dow has enabled us to make progress in our commitment toward achieving 100 per cent recyclable or reusable packaging by 2030. The development of our air capsule e-commerce packaging is a step in the right direction, and we hope to continue collaborating with more partners to drive such impact at scale,” said Neo Yang, packaging innovation leader, P&G China.
Through expertise in materials science, Dow works closely with partners like P&G China to deliver a sustainable future for plastics. The company says these efforts are aligned with its sustainability goals to close the loop by enabling 100 per cent of its packaging solutions to be recyclable or reusable by 2035 and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
