Thursday, September 15, 2011

GreenBlue® Reports on Sustainability of Decorative Processes on Paperboard

GreenBlue®, a non-profit organization developed to equip businesses with the science and resources to make products more sustainable, has recently released a suite of reports that provides technical guidance on how to design packaging to be compatible with common recovery methods. Separate reports have been developed for aluminum, steel, glass and paper packaging.

Closing the Loop: Design for Recovery Guidelines for Paper Packaging (the Guidelines) provides information that is necessary to assess the potential recyclability of a new type of package before it is released into the marketplace. According to GreenBlue® Project Leader Elizabeth Shoch, “The goal of the Closing the Loop project is to improve the overall recovery of packaging materials, primarily by connecting two parts of the supply chain that rarely interact: packaging designers and recyclers. The hope is that if designers are aware of the impact they have on packaging recovery, they may change their practices and design with the end in mind.”

Shoch further explained that specifically for paper packaging, the Guidelines’ primary purpose was to examine the various treatments that are applied to paper packaging, assess their purpose in packaging and try to determine how each treatment impacts the recycling or composting process – the two beneficial end-of-life options for paper packaging in the US. “To our knowledge,” said Shoch, “this information has not been previously collected anywhere.” more

Diamond Packaging
Diamond's greenbox initiative

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