From Space, the Earth looks like a blue marble....
Press Release: October 17th, 2000
No-hassle disposal
for new packaging
The New Zealand launch of a biodegradable packing material comes amidst a growing worldwide backlash against the waste caused by the disposal of product packaging.
Many countries of the world are now
passing legislation to stop the widespread dumping of
packaging materials, and increasing pressure is being put on
importers and exporters to solve the problem.
The
high-profile ‘green’ movement and increasing awareness of
environmental issues among consumers is also a factor, with
many marketing companies now looking for more
environmentally acceptable product packaging, to keep on
side with pollution-conscious buyers.
The release this
week of Planetpak loosefill packaging by the Blue Marble
Polymers company gives New Zealand firms a competitively
priced alternative to traditional petroleum-based loosefill
‘peanut’ packaging.
Planetpak is the name of a new
starch-based loosefill product which will literally dissolve
in water after its protective packaging job is over. Its
biodegradable make-up circumvents the problem of waste
packaging which simply ends up filling rubbish dumps all
around the world.
The technology behind the Planetpak
product is already well known, and the biodegradable
loosefill has been available in Europe and the USA for about
10 years. It is accepted as a mainstream product in those
countries, taking up to 30% of the market for loosefill
packaging in some regions of the USA, and more than 10%
nationwide.
The already strong acceptance of the new
product is also being helped by the recent rise in global
oil prices. The new, biodegradable product is now matching
petroleum-based polystyrene products on price, adding to the
appeal of its competitive product protection abilities.
Because the starch-based product will dissolve harmlessly in
water after use, it also helps marketing and exporting
companies to comply with international packaging
legislation.
Companies will also be able to benefit from
use of the product in a marketing sense, promoting it as a
more environmentally aware product compared to loosefill
polystyrene.
It has taken some time for the biodegradable
loosefill material to make it to the New Zealand market
because until now it has proved difficult to make
manufacture economic in a country with a market as small as
ours.
Blue Marble Polymers (owned by the
Christchurch-based Gough Technology company) has spent much
of the past two years working on specialist manufacturing
processes to make the product viable.
Assisted by funding from Technology NZ, Blue Marble Polymers has worked with several New Zealand companies and the company which makes the biogradable product in the US, to solve a number of technical hurdles.
The loosefill ‘peanut’ product will be followed onto the New Zealand market by foam panel and foam shell packaging variants.
Anya Hornsey,
Technology Developments Manager with Blue Marble Polymers,
is expecting a strong market for the Planetpak product in
this country. She says market research has already brought
an “exciting” response for potential clients.
“There is
already a willingness to get away from using polystyrene,”
she says.
“Companies are looking to move away from the
polystyrene ‘peanuts’ because of the legal difficulties of
shipping polystyrene into Europe. And while there’s also a
drive from companies wanting to be greener, they are also
looking to be independent of regulations, taxes and levies.
“The benefits of the biogradable loosefill are
quantifiable in dollar terms but they also provide a good
marketing point on an environmental basis,” she says.
The Planetpak product is being officially launched at the PackTech 2000 packaging expo in Auckland this week.
For more information: Anya Hornsey, Technology
Developments Manager, Blue Marble Polymers, 61 Wickham St
Christchurch. tel 0-3-3845877.
Email:
info@bluemarble.co.nz; web:
www.BlueMarblePolymers.co.nz
Background paper: October
10, 2000
Bluemarble Polymers & Planetpak protective foam
packaging
From Space, the Earth looks like a blue
marble....
Perhaps it was during the historic series of Apollo space flights between1968 and 1972 that human beings truly began to appreciate the fragility of the planet earth.
It was the Apollo space programme of that era which
produced the famous and moving photograph of a tiny, blue
planet floating in the depths of space - looking like a
lonely blue marble.
It was possibly one of the most
published early photographs of the earth from space, snapped
through the window of an Apollo spacecraft.
The picture
was overwhelmingly blue and white. It showed Africa (with
Asia just on the horizon) as the principle land mass. It
showed an ocean with Madagascar on the right. It showed the
Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean and at the bottom of the
earth was a great, white cloud mass.
Anyone who sees that
picture could hardly miss the message - our planet is a tiny
speck floating in space – unique, fragile,
vulnerable.
Back in the 1960s and ‘70s when the Apollo
spacecraft patrolled space between the earth and the moon,
the green movement was yet to make it onto the front pages
of newspapers around the globe, but today there is a strong
realisation that man cannot continue to damage the earth’s
environment.
There are many major environmental issues
yet to be solved – the massive rate of fossil fuel
consumption, the tonnes of pollution spewed into the
atmosphere each year and the damage to the ozone layer,
among others. However, there is a widespread acceptance that
where environmentally harmful products can be replaced by
better alternatives, that change should be made.
Hence
the development of a biodegradable starch and water
alternative to one of the most prevalent forms of protective
foam packaging – petroleum-based polystyrene “peanuts” or
loose fill packaging. Instead of lying around in landfills
like its polystyrene equivalent, the new biodegradable
packaging product will literally break down in water and
dissolve – leaving no trace of itself.
Biodegradable loosefill packaging is already well-accepted in the major population centres of the USA and Europe. In the US for instance, it is taking up to 30% of the market for loosefill in some regions, and accounts for more than 10% of sales nationwide.
more....
2.
Its popularity has
partly stemmed from legislation in many countries which
seeks to cut down on the amount of waste packaging filling
rubbish dumps. Germany is a prominent example, but there are
many other countries in Europe and elsewhere who have also
taken a stand against packaging waste. Consumers around the
world are also pressuring companies to cut down the amount
of packaging waste associated with their
products.
Despite the growing resistance to packaging
‘rubbish’, the biodegradable product is only now being
launched here in New Zealand, after a two-year development
programme by Bluemarble Polymers of Christchurch. With some
funding assistance from Technology New Zealand and through
technical associations with companies in the US and here in
New Zealand, Bluemarble Polymers has managed to circumvent
one of the major problems facing the introduction of
biodegradable loosefill packaging – the high capital cost of
equipment needed to produce it.
The Christchurch-based
company has managed to overcome practical difficulties which
have until now made production of the starch-based loosefill
economically prohibitive for small population centres like
New Zealand.
The launch of the loosefill product in New
Zealand will lead on to foam panel and foam shell packaging
variants – all with the same biodegradable qualities which
will literally see the products dissolve away in water after
their protective packaging job is over.
For more information: Anya Hornsey, Technology Developments Manager, Blue Marble Polymers, 61 Wickham St Christchurch. tel 0-3-3845877. Email: info@bluemarble.co.nz; web: www.BlueMarblePolymers.co.nz
ends