Chemistry, Materials & Packaging
The latest developments in safe and sustainable chemicals, new materials, fuels, and more.
Q&A: How to Know When Products Are Truly MADE SAFE®
The MADE SAFE® certification is on the verge of certifying its 1,000th product. Three years ago, this program didn’t even exist.
Novozymes, VTT Crafting Next-Gen Solutions to Plastic Waste (and More)
Cross-Posted from Waste Not. Promising technologies from Finland, France could bring waste-free future closer to reality.
Over 170 Brand Partners, Innovators Hard at Work on Sustainable Viscose
Global fashion brands highlight new solutions to viscose made from ancient and endangered forests.
Unifi, Saint Haven, TreeToTextile Pioneering New Breed of Sustainable Textiles
Market demands continue to drive innovation in sustainable fabrics.
BillerudKornsäs Offers Unique Insights on Packaging Sustainability
As consumers look to brands to lead the way in packaging sustainability, brands can choose responsibly sourced, light and easy-to-recycle packaging solutions to get there.
Trending: Lush, M&S, Nestlé Accelerate Plastic-Free Strategies
The work to clean up our plastic mess continues with new initiatives from more major brands.
UK to Hold Companies Responsible for Packaging Recycling, Disposal
Businesses and manufacturers will pay the full cost of recycling or disposing of their packaging waste, under a major new government strategy unveiled late last month by the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).
China Lags on Sustainable Viscose, Australia Unveils Tree-Free Alternative
Report: Chinese viscose sector’s sustainability roadmap fails to deliver
Beyond Transparency: The Next Essential Step in Product Optimization
If you’ve been around the building products industry in the last five years, you’ve probably encountered conversations about transparency — around material health, chemical hazards, environmental impacts, you name it. To be fair, if you were around the building products industry 10 years ago, no one was really talking about transparency (at least not like today). The buzzword of the day back then was recycled content. Before that, it was indoor air quality. And over time those attributes have become commonplace for most manufacturers; transparency is the next attribute to achieve.
Trending: Biomimetic Cement, Self-Healing Polymer Could Revolutionize Materials Game
New innovations in materials science by two of the US’ most respected engineering and research institutions could revolutionize the materials we use for a host of applications across industries. First, what if the inherent weaknesses of a material actually made houses and buildings stronger during wildfires and earthquakes?
Benchmarking to Advance Safer Chemicals Management
From competitor and public policies to non-profit and investor pressures, there is more demand than ever to advance safer chemicals programs at your company. One proven way to help get on the right course is through benchmarking. Benchmarking does not need to be a daunting task. In fact, there are tools available to help companies evaluate and compare their safer chemicals performance to standardized criteria. This process can help foster safer chemicals management by driving program changes based on industry best practices and successful management techniques.
PepsiCo, Seventh Gen, CLF Bring Sustainable Plastics Closer to Reality
There’s a flurry of activity this week, as several heavy-hitters announce moves that promise big ripple effects in the plastics and packaging space. PepsiCo, Inc. today announced a multi-year supply agreement with Loop Industries, Inc., a leading technology innovator in sustainable plastic, that will enable PepsiCo to purchase production capacity from Loop’s joint venture facility in the US and incorporate Loop™ PET plastic, which is 100 percent recycled material, into its product packaging by early 2020.
Trending: Wood Pulp, Kelp Shaping New Crop of Plant-Based Textiles
While it might be cliche to say that plant-based fabrics are the latest trend in fashion, the recent emergence of luxury textiles made from everything from kapok tree fibers, apples, orange waste and coffee grounds, to a vegan wool alternative made from hemp and coconut fibers suggests these innovations are more than a seasonal blip.
Beautycounter, HP, J&J Show Path to Chemical, Material Health Through Chemical Footprint Project
Signatories of the Chemical Footprint Project — companies across a range of industries with $2.78 trillion in assets under management and over $700 billion in purchasing power — are asking their stakeholders: Where are you on your chemicals management journey? Are you participating in the CFP Survey? What are your CFP Survey answers? “Leadership in chemical and material health is participating in the CFP Survey,” highlighted Dr. Mark S. Rossi, Executive Director of Clean Production Action and co-founder of CFP.
Trending: European CPG Giants Continue Charge Toward Sustainable Packaging
First, Danish brewer The Carlsberg Group has unveiled a series of packaging innovations, including its new Snap Pack, which is set to reduce plastic waste globally by more than 1200 tonnes a year – the equivalent to 60 million plastic bags. The Snap Pack replaces the plastic wrapping used around Carlsberg’s six packs with a pioneering technology that glues its cans together. A world first for the beer industry, it will reduce the amount of plastic used in traditional multi-packs by up to 76 percent, and save 1,200 tonnes annually – the equivalent of 60 million plastic bags – once all of its 4-, 6- and 8-packs have been converted.
H&M Opens Hydrothermal Recycling Facilities, Calls for Latest Class of Circular Innovators
This week, the nonprofit H&M Foundation and the Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel (HKRITA) opened two first-of-their-kind textile recycling facilities in Hong Kong, where HKRITA’s breakthrough hydrothermal recycling technology will for the first time be put into practice at scale, and a miniaturized Garment-To-Garment Recycling System is opened for the public.
VTT's Plastic-Eating Microbes Could Help Solve Marine Plastic Problem
VTT — the Technical Research Centre of Finland — is helping to solve the global plastic waste problem with a project called PlastBug, a mobile container unit that removes plastic waste from ocean areas and converts it into material for other uses. "Our idea is to design a mobile container where microbes degrade plastic waste to valuable products like fuels or chemicals," says Kari Koivuranta, Principal Scientist at VTT.
Q&A: DuPont Sorona and the Evolution, and Revolution, of Biomaterials
Over his more than 30 years in the business, Mike Saltzberg has seen firsthand how sustainability has grown to be of equal consideration with technical performance and cost in the development of new biomaterials. Saltzberg is the Global Business Director for Biomaterials at DuPont Industrial Biosciences, the team that ideates and develops products derived from bio-based materials. Among their innovations is DuPont™ Sorona®, a partially plant-based fiber increasingly used in apparel and carpet.
2 Companies Capitalizing on the Market Shift Away from Disposable Plastic Packaging
A growing market shift has reached a critical mass this year against disposable plastic packaging. Leading on the regulatory front, the EU announced a goal of making all of its plastic waste recyclable or reusable by 2030. In the private sector, major brands have committed to achieving 100 percent recycling and reuse of materials in the form of sustainable packaging by 2025.
Paper Battery from BillerudKorsnäs, Uppsala Paving Way for Energy Storage in Packaging
Swedish sustainable packaging giant BillerudKorsnäs and researchers at Uppsala University have partnered to bring paper batteries to life. Together, they have taken basic research based on pure cellulose from algae and developed it to work with the same type of fiber that BillerudKorsnäs often uses to manufacture its packaging material — furthering development for both inexpensive and eco-friendly batteries. The long-term aim is to enable large-scale production and the future use of paper batteries for applications in areas such as smart packaging.