Plastic product manufacturing brings environmental concerns, but advanced materials and production processes have become the ‘artist’s medium’ for sustainable innovation in plastic.
Plastic polymers are ideal carriers of performance enhancing additives. Inherently stable, when combined with modern functional additives plastic products are transformed. With Caps & Closures’ help, our customers are exploring this new world of functional plastics, extending the boundaries of product performance. It’s possible to create self-sanitising surfaces, sustainable, low-carbon products, smart plastics that protect against counterfeiting, or biodegradable products that break down completely in landfill.
As an industry we are poised to take on the environmental challenge of plastics here and now with game-changing additives. The World Economic Forum says plastic biodegradability is one of the most effective technologies to address the global plastic waste problem. For example, Caps & Closures’ EnviroShield biodegradable material is available and cost-effective, and in landfill becomes humus in a matter of years, with no microplastic residual.
Carbon footprint reduced
Is the environmental impact of plastic film packaging worse than alternatives like aluminium foil when used for the same purpose? Surprisingly not – aluminium production is three times as energy-hungry, with ten times the greenhouse emissions of plastic manufacture. For a comparable energy/ sustainability level with plastic film, aluminium foil must be re-used three times. Greenhouse impact for recycled plastic is about one tenth that of aluminium recycling (EPA 2016).
There are challenges capturing plastic waste streams, to prevent contamination of waterways and oceans. The Recycling and Waste Reduction Act 2020 aims to address these, and will help stabilise the plastics recovery and recycling industry in Australia, creating a sustainable recycled plastic supply chain for industry.
Where innovation gains momentum
Cross-pollination in nature yields great results. Nature works in this way to create the beauty and variety we see around us. Similarly, humans use synthesis of sciences, industry sectors and cultures to make exciting “life-changing” advances.
We can share ideas from the packaging industry with other sectors. Take the electric vehicle and its lithium battery as an example. Believe it or not, battery manufacturing engineers are learning from the packaging industry.
Basically, cylindrical lithium battery cells are two electrodes packed in a can with a closure. The “form-factor” for batteries in Tesla vehicles is this cylindrical package. Thousands of these are assembled into “packs” for each car it makes. In 2020, Tesla made more than half a million packs for EV’s and homes, and plan to double output in 2021.
Tesla has moved to make its own batteries for its car-making plants. Production output needed to dramatically increase, so its engineers sought ways to improve processes and costs to make them scalable. Tesla looked at packaging industry process technology and was impressed by the efficiency with which bottles and closures were mated in a tightly controlled, clean environment.
Tesla applied those principles and process technology, making battery assembly easier, safer and much less expensive. The innovative beverage packaging industry can claim credit for inspiring the next generation of manufacturing plants for high energy lithium batteries and accelerating the world’s transition to sustainable energy (Tesla’s vision). Kudos goes to Tesla for its support of “out there” manufacturing engineers and their creativity – so essential for companies pursuing commercial breakthroughs.
Stories like this, inspiring a rethink of manufacturing and investment collaboration, are what we love to hear. Creating sustainable, category-redefining products in a spirit of partnership is at the heart of what we do at Caps & Closures. We are all about finding a better way in product development through our manufacturing partnerships.
This article was first published in the January-February print edition of PKN Packaging News.
