Consumers

You are currently browsing the archive for the Consumers category.

Compostable Wrapping for Packaging

May 30, 2010 in Consumers, Eco-Responsible Packaging by admin | No comments

It’s great to have packaging that’s made from renewable resources and that is natural and compostable. But what about the lids or wrappings that are more than often also required with the package? To provide our produce customers with a more integrated solution we’ve had to search around the world for partners that could provide us with the right product.

Vexar is a certified commercially compostable netting brand carried by Conwed which we like because their nets are, of course, compostable, but also breathable, gentle and reusable.  Also, we like the flexible film product called NatureFlexTM made by Innovia Films, a company best known for their Cellophane brand.

The NatueFlex film is great and what’s needed today because it is certified home compostable by the European OK Home Compost standard as well as the ASTM D6400 and the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI). This is possible because the film is made from cellulose derived from wood pulp, which is harvested from managed plantations.

Innovia makes the film available in heat sealable bags or as wrap format that can be micro or macro perforated for added breathability. The application is quite broad from fresh produce packaging, to bakery items, and to confection and convenience food wrapping to name a few.

» Leave a comment

Tags: , , , , ,

A Role Model: Waste Management & Recycling In Switzerland

May 17, 2010 in Consumers by admin | No comments

The word Switzerland conjures up the image of finance, impartiality, watches, Swiss Army knives, pharmaceuticals, and yes, chocolate! We’ve also historically heard about the Swiss efficiency – but how does the country stack up on the environmental side – in particular waste management and recycling? I didn’t have to dig long to find various hits boasting about what a role model the country has been in this area.

It turns out that the Swiss do not landfill their municipal waste. In fact, since 2000, everything that cannot be recycled or composted gets incinerated – given that two-thirds of Switzerland is covered by mountains, I can see why! So we wonder about the air – wouldn’t that create an incredible amount of pollution and health hazards? Apparently the incinerators are so advanced, that the air pollution is minimal. But what is minimal? In any case, the incinerators are used to produce energy and the 28 facilities in Switzerland generate electricity for 250,000 homes – pretty impressive. What’s more, this substantially decreases the amount of oil imports required for heating.

On the recycling end, the Swiss can proudly claim to be among the top recyclers in the world. They’ll recycle about 76 percent of everything that’s recyclable or around 50% of all urban waste. To give you a point of reference, the US urban recycling rate is around 30 percent and our Canadian efforts are hovering around the same level. So how does Switzerland do it? Is the country so much more concerned about the environment than we are? Not necessarily. There’s a system in place – namely financial incentives and having the infrastructure in place to make it convenient for citizens to do their job.

While recycling is free, the waste removal is not. In fact, there is a per bag fee of about 1 Euro and each bag requires a sticker to provide proof of payment – no sticker no pick-up. Apparently the fine for not paying your waste disposal fee can be up to $10,000 if you’re caught.

But if the Government is going to have such fees attached to waste disposal, then access to proper waste management and recycling needs to be in place. Pretty much every super market in Switzerland has a bottle bank (with separate slots for different glass colours!) and batteries can be handed over at the counter. Every town has free paper and green waste pick up and there are plenty of specialty sites available for aluminum, tin, oil or chemical waste among others. In addition, consumers can leave all unwanted packaging at the cash register to leave the onus of wasteful packaging on the suppliers.

Once again, the Swiss efficiency seems to shine.

Sources:

Swissworld.com: Recycling
Swissworld.com: Waste Management
Stats Canada: Recycling in Canada
Wikipedia: Waste Management in Switzerland
Few holes in Switzerland’s Recycling Program
Recycling In Switzerland

» Leave a comment

Tags: , , ,

Influencing the Palm Oil Industry

May 14, 2010 in Consumers, ­In Perspective by admin | No comments

The other day someone asked in response to my story on the “Trailblazers for Good” blog on Care2.com whether or not I would consider influencing and bringing about change in the palm oil industry? Well, the quick and high-level answer is yes – this has been my intention from the beginning – to create change in the industry by helping to create positive role models and economically viable alternatives for the disposal of palm waste. We recently had a discussion with a large palm oil plantation company in Malaysia and they agree that our company “represented the future of the industry.”

We became one of the early members of the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), have volunteered to get a third party review done and verification to ensure the ethical sourcing of our raw palm fiber material, and continue to work with our supplier plantation to make improvements, measuring ourselves against the guidelines of the RSPO among others. And it really goes further than this.

After living in South East Asia for 15 years and returning to Canada, I was looking to develop a business concept that would allow me to not only address and help contribute to the sustainable development of the palm oil industry and a better quality of life and working conditions for those affected by the incineration of palm waste, but to also find a way to simultaneously address North America’s mounting waste problem, and the environmental and health hazards brought on by plastics. This is how Earthcycle Packaging was born!

Lofty goals? Maybe. But for me it is about aligning my values, passion and skills to affect incremental change in the short-term to hopefully inspire and bring about the necessary transformational change in the future.

» Leave a comment

Tags: , , , , ,

So what about the Palm Oil Industry?

May 12, 2010 in Consumers, ­In Perspective by admin | No comments

Because our company’s mission is so entwined with the palm oil industry and I have been around the Malaysian palm oil industry for over eight years, I sometimes get questions here in North America about the palm oil industry as a whole and its sustainability.

Here in North America, while we are generally aware of the controversies surrounding the palm oil production, we are largely unfamiliar with the bright orange and red clusters of palm fruit that grow on giant husks – the fruits that are the source for the oil that ends up as an ingredient in a wide range of food and beauty products all over the world. More than 70 percent of palm oil is derived from plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia, with Malaysia being the largest exporter of palm oil, feeding three billion people in over 150 countries.

The palm oil industry as a whole is a substantial part of the global economy, providing vital employment for over 6 million people. Palm oil is also highly efficient—it is eight times more productive per acre than soybean oil, and accounts for roughly a third of the world demand for vegetable oils. Palm oil is trans-fat free and provides many nutritional health benefits including antioxidants and vitamins. As such, it is a main source of calories and nutrition for people in developing nations.

In Malaysia, palm oil plantations make up two-thirds of Malaysia’s agricultural land which is 20 percent of the total land. Rainforests make up 60 percent of the total land. As such, 80 percent of Malaysia is green tree covered which makes it one of the largest carbon sinks in the world. According to the American Palm Oil Council, over the past twenty years, the areas converted for palm cultivation came from pre-existing farms such as rubber, cocoa, and coconut or from agricultural zoned land.

In recent years, the price for palm oil has jumped by 70 percent due to increasing demand from traditional food sources and from new demand for palm oil in the form of biodiesel, which in many cases is being subsidized by western governments. This hunger for palm oil has not only had a major impact on household expenditures in the developing world, but has also threatened the lush, diverse rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra that are home to numerous endangered species, such as orang-utans.

Enter the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). We became one of the early members of this organization. The RSPO is unique in that it brings together groups that would normally be on opposite sides of the table, to define and certify sustainability in the palm oil industry. Members of the RSPO include social and environmental NGO’s (including WWF), grassroots organizations and members along the entire supply chain—plantation owners, millers, traders, retailers and financiers. The RSPO agreed on a set of Principles and Criteria for the Production of Sustainable Palm Oil in 2005, launching the certification system in 2007. It was definitely high time for such an initiative.

Have a look at the CNBC 2008 Story on the palm oil industry challenges and RSPO’s efforts to address them – it’s a worthwhile clip

YouTube Preview Image

In addition, here are further sources of interest:

American Palm Oil Council
Wikipedia – Palm Oil
Quick Info on Palm Oil
A healthful Diet can include Palm Oil
Roundtable For Sustainable Palm Oil

RSPO on Sustainable Palm Oil Industry

YouTube Preview Image

» Leave a comment

Tags: , , , ,

Ethical Sourcing of Palm Fiber for Sustainable Packaging

May 7, 2010 in Consumers, Eco-Responsible Packaging, ­In Perspective by admin | No comments

A few weeks ago I was invited to contribute our Earthcycle story to the “Trailblazers for Good” blog on the Care2.com site. It sparked a variety of interesting comments and questions on the palm oil industry which I will address in this and the next few blog posts. Let’s start with the question of where we source our raw fiber material.

More than 70 percent of palm oil is derived from plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia, where the first palm trees were planted in the 1800’s. Earthcycle’s products are made from a waste product of the palm oil industry. Specifically, our packaging material is a moulded pulp product made from the husks where the palm fruit grows.

Before founding Earthcycle Packaging, I lived in South East Asia for 15 years where I became well aware of the destructive tendencies of industrial agriculture and the impact excessive demand was having on the natural world. It is well known that there are some areas that have been desecrated and we do not condone it – as such, we have veered away from doing business (licensing technology, sourcing raw material) from areas of the world that don’t have a mindset toward sustainability or don’t have the wherewithal to invest in RSPO certification.

We chose our suppliers of palm fiber carefully and also became an early member of the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). The RSPO is a unique organization, bringing together groups that would normally be on opposite sides of the table, to define and certify sustainability in the palm oil industry. Members of the RSPO include social and environmental NGO’s, grassroots organizations and members along the entire supply chain—plantation owners, millers, traders, retailers and financiers. The RSPO agreed on a set of Principles and Criteria for the Production of Sustainable Palm Oil in 2005, launching the certification system in 2007.

It was important to me to get a third party review done on our Malaysian plantation partners so we commissioned SGS Qualipalm, an authorized auditor for the RSPO to assess our source of palm fiber against the RSPO defined guidelines for land title, High Conservation Value (HCV) areas and agrochemical use.

Based on the SGS Qualipalm report, we can safely say that our partner plantation first planted palm trees in 1976, and has existing legal documentation for land titles and proof of occupation and use. The location is in an area of Peninsular Malaysia where there are no significant High Conservation Value (HCV) forests or wildlife habitats. No orang-utans were lost in development of the plantation since Peninsular Malaysia has not recorded sittings of orang-utans. Sittings of species protected under Malaysian law on the plantation include monitor lizards, barn owls and forest cats. Also, the assessment confirmed that there has been no conversion of Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESAs) to oil palm as per Malaysia’s National Plan. Issues of HCVF are minimal since current activities do not involve clearing of natural areas.

The quest for sustainability is a journey—if we were all perfect, there would be no need for the certification in the first place. So, it is expected that there are areas in the plantation management that need improvement as measured against the RSPO Principles and Criteria.

There is still much work to be done and I’m committed to working with our current and any future partners to help them improve best practices in their operations.

» Leave a comment

Tags:

Where to find great Indoor Composters?

May 3, 2010 in Consumers by admin | No comments

Since we talk daily about our certified home compostable status for our Earthcycle packaging products, I thought it was high time to do a post on available composting systems, in particular for indoor composting. It is one thing to compost when you have a yard, but another thing when you live in an apartment or simply don’t have the time or inclination to start your own pile. So I went on a Google mission to see how long it would take me to find some great and easy indoor composting systems – I was at it way longer than expected. To save you some time and hassle, I thought I’d share a couple of my findings:

NatureMill Polypropylene Kitchen Composters seem to come out on top. I found references to this company on Earth911.com, the Oprah Winfrey Website, as well as the Top Composters Blog so I had to check out NatureMill’s website. Their automated magic box comes with an air filter and a system to control oxygen levels, temperature and turning to speed up the composting process to a mere two weeks. Their website is a worthwhile visit – also make sure to watch the demo video. One drawback is the price – this stylish little magic box retails at around US$300.

The All Seasons Indoor Composter (formerly Happy Farmer Composting Kit) with Bokashi seems to be highly popular and pops up in numerous blogs and sites such as Amazon.com and eBay. I saw a demo of it at the EPIC Trade Show in Vancouver last year. Just as the About.com review suggests, the distributors at EPIC said that for this system, you would want to purchase two buckets as they fill up quickly and composting can take several weeks. The bins are made from 80% recycled plastics and retail in the $70 to $100 range including the bag of Bokashi. The manufacturers’ website lists all distributors per region here.

Here are some additional links of interest:

Earth911.com: Composting While Cooking – A Guide for the Kitchen

Top Composters Blog

Indoor Kitchen Composters

Bush Systems: Recycling and Composting systems

Environmental Protection Agency: Composting

How To Use the All Seasons Indoor Composter™ Kit

YouTube Preview Image

» Leave a comment

Tags: , , , , , ,

Benefits of City Composting

April 9, 2010 in Consumers, ­In Perspective by admin | No comments

In time for Earth Day on April 22, the City of Vancouver announced a new three-phase curbside compost pick-up program for single-family homes. According to the City, phase one will allow families to add their vegetable and fruit scraps, tea bags, coffee grounds and filters to their yard trimming bins. In early 2011, we’re supposed to see this service extended to include all food scraps including meats, fish, dairy, bread, cereal products and food-soiled paper. The compost will be handled by a commercial composting facility, Fraser Richmond Soil & Fibre, which can generate the right amount of heat and moisture to break down this matter appropriately and in a timely manner.

As of yet, this program is unfortunately not available for apartment dwellers, although the City is working on a plan for Metro Vancouver to add collection to multi-family units and businesses. The good news is that there are some private grassroots initiatives starting up in Vancouver that are addressing the commercial composting challenge. Growing City for example started servicing the downtown Vancouver area last year.

There are significant reasons why cities, such as Vancouver, are finally jumping on the composting bandwagon. While composting initially costs more than land-filling, over the long-term, the benefits will outweigh these costs. Organic material from single-family homes in Vancouver makes up over 35 percent of garbage that ends up in our landfill. By diverting it to a local composting facility instead, we can reduce a large source of landfill-generated greenhouse gases, extend the life of our landfill, and generate a valuable resource for the community in the form of premium soil and mulch. What’s more, this industry generates additional jobs, and word has it that Fraser Richmond will also add technology that will allow for the production of renewable energy as of 2011. You can find out more on this through their parent company, Harvest.

Significant municipal infrastructure progress, such as adding new composting plants and programs, is good news for the alternative packaging industry. Such infrastructural change makes it easier to introduce innovative new packaging materials (made from agricultural fibers for example) as alternatives to traditional plastic packaging. It is one thing to find alternatives to plastic packaging, but if the infrastructure isn’t there to support that switch, it is more difficult to promote change.

More resources:

The Province: Vancouver OKs yard composting beginning April 22

Andrea Reimer: Curbside & Neighbourhood Compost Comes to Vancouver!

Granville Online: Curbside compost pickup in Metro Vancouver

Compost Council of Canada

US Composting Council

Natural Resources Defense Council: Keep organics and recyclables out of landfills and incinerators

Wikipedia: Composting

» Leave a comment

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Industrial vs. Home Composting – what’s the difference?

April 5, 2010 in Consumers by admin | No comments

Frito Lay’s new Sun Chips bag will be hitting the market on Earth Day 2010. The company claims this will be the first fully compostable snack chip bag made from plant-based materials. They say that all layers are produced using PLA (corn plastic) material from NatureWorks which makes the bag 100% compostable.

But what type of composting are we talking about? Is it safe for the home compost? In their advertising and labelling, companies often do not properly qualify this. There are many products that are compostable but are only meant for industrial composting facilities – not the home compost – so proper disposal of such products is essential.

One of the key differences of an industrial composting facility is the fact that there is regular turning, and moisture and temperatures get monitored during the composting process, achieving over 55 degrees Celsius for a consistent period of time. This will allow certain materials to break down better and faster, and it will kill potentially harmful bacteria from certain foods, such as meat, dairy and cooked foods that are not recommended for home compost situations.

Frito Lay Sun Chips does make mention in their press release that the new bag will fully decompose in approximately 14 weeks “if placed in a hot, active compost pile or bin.” So industrial composting is implied but not necessarily clear and the consumer advertising may suggest otherwise. However, NatureWorks is more specific on their website and says that their “Ingeo brand products are intended for industrial composters who very carefully regulate temperature, moisture and turning. Due to the variability in home composting, NatureWorks LLC does not recommend their products for use in home composting.”

Our Earthcycle produce packaging, for example, is certified home compostable which means it will break down in a home compost within 90 days, thereby not requiring special high temperatures.

If you’re interested to find out more about how Industrial Composting works, I suggest a website visit to the Edmonton Composting Facility, the largest co-composter in North America. Believe it or not, it takes up an area of about eight football fields and processes 200,000 tonnes of residential waste and 25,000 dry tonnes of biosolids each year. The city says that with recycling and composting, only 40 percent of Edmonton’s household waste goes to landfill.

A look inside the City of Edmonton’s Composting Facility Video Clip
YouTube Preview Image

Additional Resources

Wikipedia: Industrial Composting

BPI: All About Composting

Compost Council of Canada

US Composting Council

» Leave a comment

What are Oxo-degradable Plastics?

March 19, 2010 in Consumers, Eco-Responsible Packaging by admin | No comments

Just like regular plastic, oxo-degradable plastic is made from oil or natural gas by-products, and according to the Oxo-Biodegradable Plastics Association (OBPA), degradation is possible by adding a chemical substance that decreases the material’s molecular weight over a given time period.

This additive process helps to speed up oxidation of the plastic, which then breaks down as long as the necessary elements of oxygen and microorganisms are available, such as air, soil, landfill, compost, and litter (Ecosafeplastics.com).

Proponents of oxo-degradable plastics claim various science-backed advantages, such as recycling safe and food safe, and also state that the oxo-plastics will biodegrade. However, this is where the debate gets a bit blurry because there is as of yet no one standard for the exact definition of “biodegradability.” According to a recent article from the European Plastics News, the ISO 17088 for example “requires that total biodegradation must be achieved within six months.” For oxo-degradable plastics biodegradation can be a whole lot longer – beyond twelve months.

Also, the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI) says they have not yet seen any science backed “biodegradable” plastics that will break down completely in landfills within twelve months and leave no residue as per consumers’ expectations.

According to the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Green Guide, a product or package qualifies as biodegradable if it “completely breaks down and returns to nature, decomposing into elements found in nature within a reasonably short period of time after customary disposal.”

Oxo-degradable plastics will leave residues behind in the environment after degradation. Even though these microscopic pellets are not toxic and will not emit methane or nitrous oxide (OBPA 2010), they still remain in the environment and thus, the “biodegradability” argument continues.  

One major argument for oxo-degradable plastic is that as long as oil and gas extraction continues for energy consumption, it makes sense to use the associated by-product. Some sources question the use of limited land and water resources for example to produce bio-plastics such as PLA (corn plastic) which requires special industrial composting at 140 degrees. On the other hand, our dependence on non-renewable resources has to shift sooner rather than later so we would be wise to incorporate the available alternatives and help to optimize them.

In addition to the increasing use of PLA, there are agricultural fiber based products available on the market that are made from renewable resources, such as palm, bamboo, bulrush, and bagasse. These products are 100 percent compostable in the backyard compost and once broken down, make a healthy contribution to the soil as humus.

There are concerns that the majority of consumers will still toss compostable plastic packaging into their regular recycling or waste collection bins, especially since the infrastructure for curb side pickup of compost is not yet readily available in many municipalities. However, consumer awareness and responsibility is on the rise and an increasing number of individuals compost and sort their recyclables.

Statistics Canada says that in 2006, 30% of Canadians did compost their kitchen waste through a curb side program. In addition, many municipalities are starting to add compost to their curb-side pickup. Vancouver, my hometown, for example, has just announced their commitment to start a curb side compost program on Earth Day, April 22, 2010. Stay tuned to this blog for a discussion on Vancouver’s new composting initiative.

More links of interest:

Oxo-biodegradable Plastics Association

Symphony Environmental

Ecosafe

The Packer: Debate arises on sustainable packaging

PlasticsNews.com: Bioplastics industry joins oxo-degradable debate

Edie.net: ‘Degradable’ plastic not so environmentally fantastic, study reveals

Biodegradable polymers market to grow at 13% through 2014

The Truth About Bioplastics

» Leave a comment

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

The Costs of Polystyrene (a.k.a. Styrofoam)

March 13, 2010 in Consumers, Eco-Responsible Packaging by admin | 1 comment

Polystyrene is one of the most widely used petroleum-based plastic products. We pretty much find it everywhere from insulation material for buildings to rescue equipment to packaging (yes, the “peanuts”) to plastic cutlery, coffee cups, and sandwich boxes.
It is synonymous with Styrofoam which is simply the trademark name owned by Dow Chemical Company. It’s easy to see the popularity of polystyrene given its strength, flexibility, lightweight, floatability, dye capacity, and insulation properties, among others. And yes, it is huge for meeting health safety standards and transportation needs. It is hard to imagine how we coped before the 1983 invention came along.

 

However, there are some major drawbacks. Polystyrene, or plastic No. 6 (PS), will not biodegrade, and according to Earth911.com, “Polystyrene is not easily recycled because it’s lightweight, has a low scrap value, and is not generally accepted as part of curbside recycling programs.” A recent article on styrofoam from the Centre for Civic Governance even suggested scrap value of polystyrene in the U.S. is negative.

While the polystyrene industry has been taking significant steps to advance the recycling of polystyrene, in looking at long-term market trends, the American Chemistry Council sees continuing challenges. When it comes to food services polystyrene in particular, they say that recycling efforts are not significant because the infrastructure required to do so is simply not sustainable in many markets.

So where does it go?  Due to polystyrene’s super light weight, it is unsinkable and easily carried by wind and water, thereby causing a large percentage to end up in places other than landfills.

A recent post on the official EPA blog Greenversation noted that “Polystyrene creates waste that just does not go away.” In particular, we see it floating around in our waterways and oceans providing danger to animals. In the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, “There are almost three kilograms of plastic for every half-kilo of plankton, which has a devastating effect on aquatic life that confuse the two” (Civic Governance, 2009). And now, scientists have just discovered another garbage patch in the Atlantic.

In addition, according to the EPA, the production of polystyrene releases 57 chemical byproducts, many of which can cause serious health challenges.

There are many alternatives to polystyrene on the market today, in particular in the packaging world. Click here for a recent post on some of these alternatives.

Here are a couple more interesting links:

Earth Resource Foundation Polystyrene Report

Great Pacific Garbage Patch Video

YouTube Preview Image

» Leave a comment

Tags: , , , ,

« Older entries